Guardians of Magessa (The Birthright Chronicles Book 1) (22 page)

“If it’s all the same to you, I will stay
and fight alongside your men,” Petra spoke up, cutting off General Uriah. “This
is my country as much as it is anyone else’s, and I intend to do everything in
my power to keep it free.”

“Very well. It matters not to me whether
you leave or stay to die with us. Do what you wish. Commander Pondran will
attend to your needs and will be your commander if you wish to stay.” The
general opened the door of the tower and was gone.

“Well, let’s get back to where my men have
taken up residence, and I’ll get you settled in and suited up,” Josiah said. He
led Petra out of the tower, extinguishing the lanterns on the way. The two men
headed down the wall, talking as they went. Suddenly Petra pulled up short and
pointed out into the city.

“You don’t have any sentries out there, do
you?” he asked.

“Of course not,” Josiah answered. “That
would be suicide.”

“Exactly,” Petra answered. “Then those
moving forms out there are the enemy, and they’re heading this way.”

“Where?” Josiah asked as he lifted a hand
to protect his eyes from the sun.

“Between those two buildings,” Petra said
and pointed to two storehouses near the southern gate. He turned back to Josiah
for a comment, but Josiah was already moving, sprinting down the wall. He
shouted to everyone as he went that another attack was coming.

“Well, I guess he saw them too,” Petra
muttered to himself and headed after Josiah. He caught up to him and stopped
when he saw that Josiah was talking to several other men.

“Right over there, Timothy,” Josiah said
and pointed to the buildings that the dwarves had been between only moments
ago. “I don’t know what happened to them. I can’t see them anymore, but you
probably can.”

"Actually, it doesn't work like
that," Timothy said. "I can only work destruction magic and not much
else."

"I can affirm that there were dwarves
gathering out there," Petra broke in. "If I had a guess, I'd say that
they were getting ready for another attack, given that they'll have the cover
of darkness. That is an obvious strategy."

“I’ll send word to the general and Lemin,”
Josiah said and headed back the way that he had come. But Timothy stopped him.

"You take care of the general and
then get ready for the attack," the magician said. "I'll tell
Lemin."

“Very well,” Josiah replied. “Then I will
get back to my men. Come, Petra.”

The two men ran down the wall, but not so
fast as to tire themselves. They passed several groups of soldiers, and Josiah
stopped for each of them and told them the news of the attack. Within several
minutes, Josiah and Petra had reached Josiah’s company of men and informed them
of the impending attack. There was a flurry of activity as the soldiers readied
themselves for the fight. Josiah led Petra to a nearby tower. Weapons and armor
were carefully stacked inside, so it took Josiah only a few minutes to find
armor that fit the new soldier. He then turned to fetch a weapon as well, but
Petra stopped him.

“I have my own weapon,” he said and drew a
brilliant sword from the sheath on his belt. “This sword has been passed down
from generation to generation in our family, and I intend to use it just as my
ancestors used it before me.”

“Suit yourself,” Josiah shrugged. He
strapped on his armor, grabbed his helmet from the rack where he had left it,
and stepped out of the tower and onto the wall. His two remaining captains, Stanslaw
and Yugart, approached him. All of their armor was firmly in place, and their
weapons were ready to be drawn at a moment’s notice. The only thing that was
missing from their battle uniforms was the helmet, which each of them held
under one arm. They waited for Josiah to walk past and fell in behind him on
either side. Josiah scanned the crowd of his soldiers that had taken less than
five minutes to prepare for battle. He looked down the wall at several other
groups who, even though they had received news of the attack earlier, were
still not ready.

“They’ll be heading for the gatehouse, so
we need to get there,” Josiah said. “The people down there aren’t ready for the
attack, and it could come at any moment. Stanslaw, take your soldiers and cover
the east side of the gatehouse. Yugart, get your soldiers and cover the west
side. I’ll take the remaining men and plug up the stairs in the actual
structure. I don’t want any ladders on the wall, so take them down if they get
set up.”

Both captains hurried off to obey Josiah’s
orders, and Josiah turned to face his men. Many had been cut down in battle,
and several of those that remained were injured; but the fear that had been in
their eyes at the beginning of the day was gone. In its place, there was a look
of determination to defeat the dwarf horde and save Magessa.

“Companies one, three, and four please
step out,” Josiah called. Two thirds of the soldiers stepped forward to
distinguish themselves from those behind them. “Form ranks,” Josiah called, and
in next to no time, the soldiers were in orderly lines. “You are now called
company one. The rest of you will form groups of three, and your task will be
to keep the walls clear of ladders. Company one, follow me.”

The company moved down the wall at a fast
clip, passing soldiers who were struggling into their armor. They had soon
gained the gatehouse and found another company of soldiers waiting there who
were obviously ready to defend the stairs in the gatehouse.

“Company, halt,” Josiah ordered. The
soldiers stopped marching simultaneously, and every soldier stood at attention.
“Left face,” Josiah ordered, and each soldier spun on his left heel so that he
now faced the city. “Draw swords and prepare for battle,” Josiah ordered before
approaching the commander of the other company of soldiers. The sound of
weapons being drawn followed him as he crossed to the other company. He quickly
identified the commander and moved to stand in front of him. The other man
saluted first, so Josiah returned the salute.

“I am Commander Pondran,” Josiah
introduced himself. “I can see that you are a captain.”

“My name is Markus,” the captain replied.

“Do you have any previous orders from any
of your superiors?” Josiah questioned. Markus shook his head, so Josiah
continued. “How many men do you have at your disposal?”

“Around three hundred.”

“Excellent.” A shout from the city
startled Josiah, and he quickly finished talking. “That should be more than
enough to block one of the staircases of the gatehouse. I’ll block the other,
and two companies of my men will protect our sides.”

Markus nodded and turned to his men to
give commands. Josiah spun on his heel and headed back toward his troops. When
he reached them, he looked out over the city and saw that the dwarves were
already halfway to the gatehouse.

“Company one, close ranks,” he called, and
his men moved so that they stood shoulder to shoulder. Josiah motioned with his
hand, and the soldiers moved forward so that the front line was mere inches
from the top of the gatehouse staircases. The front line lowered their swords
so that no dwarf could get past them, and the second line prepared their
weapons in case any of the first line should fall. Josiah looked out over the
city again. The dwarves had almost gained the gatehouse, when a shower of
arrows from the left and right cut down the front lines. Before another barrage
could be attempted, the next line of dwarves reached the safety of the
gatehouse and darted into the stairwells.

“They are coming,” Josiah called to his
front line. “Be ready for them.”

Already, the sound of dwarf boots striking
the stairs could be heard in the stairwell, and in less than a minute, the
first dwarf stuck his head around the corner. He could not stop his forward
momentum and rushed headlong onto the sword blades of the first line of
defenders. His companions could have stopped themselves in time had they
wished, but they continued their headlong charge, swinging their axes wildly.
They met the same fate as the first dwarf. It seemed as though the dwarves
would be easily repelled, until a swarm of crossbow bolts hit the defenders’
ranks, cutting down half of the first line and several of the other soldiers.
More men stepped up to fill the places of their fallen comrades, and the
dwarves were still unable to gain access to the wall.

From two towers, one on either side of the
gatehouse, archers pelted the dwarf archers, driving them back to the relative
safety of the buildings. While the missiles cut down less than a tenth of the
enemy archers, they did drive them out of bow range. The archers were gone;
however, their purpose had been accomplished. Their covering fire had allowed
ladder men, ax men, and archers to gain the foot of the wall, where they could
not be easily hit by the defenders. All along the wall, ladders were pushed up,
and enemy infantry began to climb them. Pike men immediately rushed to shove
them off, but the archers at the foot of the wall shot them as soon as they
tried. The infantry on the wall prepared for the enemy to reach the top of the
ladders, and all too soon, the dwarves were climbing up over the edge. The
defenders hit the dwarves with a shout, shoving many of them off the wall and
engaging the others. The ascending dwarves were outnumbered, but more
reinforcements piled onto the wall every second. The defenders stoically held
the dwarves back; however, the sheer number of dwarves began to overwhelm them.
Slowly the dwarves pushed the defenders away from the edge of the wall, making
room for more enemies to ascend.

The length of wall that the dwarves had
placed ladders on was relatively small, so the defenders were able to retreat
down the wall to the east and west, but this split them into two groups. Slowly
the dwarves pushed the defenders further down the wall, making more room.
Josiah and his soldiers bravely held their ground against the onslaught, but
they were still being slowly forced backward. Timothy, who found himself beside
Josiah, was using every trick he knew to vanquish his foes, but there was no
way that he could prevent them from taking more ground.

Josiah took a particularly rough blow from
a dwarf and staggered backwards. Another cadet immediately took his place,
leaving him free to observe the battle. Quickly his mind took in all of the
details, and he struggled to come up with a prudent plan of action. He quickly
searched the cadets around him and chose one that was nursing an injured arm.

“Go to the towers that have archers and
tell them to fire on the dwarves on the wall,” he ordered the cadet. “If we
don’t get these blivits off the wall soon, we’ll be in trouble.”

The cadet turned and ran toward the towers
to carry out Josiah’s order. Josiah watched him push through the crowd and out
of sight before turning his attention back to the battle. Another idea came to
him, and he began to issue orders, rearranging his men into a new formation. On
his command, an overload of cadets charged down the south edge of the wall. The
wall was crenellated on this side, so the cadets did not fall off. Instead, the
excess of cadets drove a wedge to the side of the dwarves that began to force
them off the wall. The dwarves immediately saw what was happening and started a
counter attack. They charged the cadets in front of them, but as soon as they
left the edge of the wall, Josiah ordered another group of cadets around the
north side of the dwarves, sandwiching them between two groups. The cadets
closed the trap immediately, taking the dwarves by surprise and killing them
quickly.

The cadets were intoxicated with their
success; however, they had only crushed a very small group of dwarves. Several
hundred more enemies still fought on the wall, and more climbed onto it every
moment. Josiah glanced toward the towers with the archers. They were still
firing toward the city, so he turned back to the fight before him. He located
Timothy and pushed his way over to him.

“Is there any way that you can use magic
to get the ladders off the wall?” he shouted over the ruckus of the battle.
Timothy relinquished his spot in the action to another cadet and paused to
think. After several moments, he headed toward the section of wall where the
dwarves were still clambering up the ladders. When he had almost reached the
front line of the fighting, he sheathed his sword and began to make strange
motions with his hands, almost as if he were forming an invisible ball of
something. From what little he knew, Josiah understood that Timothy was working
his magic, so he plunged headlong into the fighting. He fought furiously for
almost half a minute before he heard the fruit of that magic.

Starting near the west edge of the
dwarves, a series of explosions began to work their way across the edge of the
wall, splintering the ladders and flinging them back into the city. Concussive
waves spread out from the blasts, flinging dwarves caught in their paths off of
the wall.

Josiah raised his sword in victory and
plunged into the dwarves that had been stunned by this use of magic. Seconds
later, arrows began to rain down on the attacking dwarves, so the cadets fell
back, attacking only to contain the dwarves to an area that made it easy for
the archers to see them. Within five minutes, the last remnant of dwarves had
been squashed.

******

Josiah leaned his head back against the
wall of the tower and closed his eyes. It was night now, and his body, tired as
it was from all of the fighting, desperately needed sleep. The events of the
day had not been ideal, but they had ended on a somewhat victorious note for
the defenders of Saddun.