Book 6, Chapter 29: Arguing
Flinching as a branch whips across my face, duck under the next one, lower my head to the horse’s neck, its muscles throbbing under me, leaping over thick brown roots and large, mossy rocks. The heat from her body wafting into mine, her coat thick, I push against the stirrups, squeeze my legs to stay on, trying not to pull on the reins. The guy in front of me is out of sight, only curls of thick mist to mark his passage. Sharp crack behind me and we’re suddenly yanked backwards from the saddle.
I look behind, it’s the second horse. Lying on the ground, moaning and making a sounds of fear. Pat my horse on the neck, saying, “Hold up, whoa,” and slide off. She closes the gap a little, giving the rope between them some slack.
A rider just misses me, galloping past and yelling back, “Hey! Watch out!” He’s much further away when I hear, “They’re coming!”
The horses front leg is dangling at the knee. “Damn.” I don’t have time, don’t have healing magic, can’t leave him to suffer. I draw my dagger as another rider races past. When it’s over, I mount up, race off, ducking branches, starting as a flock of grouse break cover, cut the dangling lead off the saddle to let it fall away, wipe wetness off my cheeks under where the branch bit.
***
Breaking through the forest into a large meadow, I covered my eyes for a second against the sun. The grass was trampled where the army had come, and I followed along the path. The land sloped up, and up we went. At the top cavalry already formed a defensive ring. Spearmen first and spread out, archers behind.
“Empress,” said a man in front, “please get behind us.” He and the man beside him opened up their horses and I rode through the gap.
Inside, Gyges and Cresida and the Laemacian captain stood, the leader of our company, waiting, their horses tethered behind them. I added my own mount to these, patting her neck briefly, then joined the officers.
“Empress,” the Laemacian captain said, “We either wear out the horses or make a stand here.” Not too tall, he had very wide shoulders, thick muscles, and not someone you’d want to wrestle.
I replied, “Captain, we don’t know how many are following us. Were I the enemy, I’d want to stop our messages from reaching Laemacia.”
Gyges looked angry, and shuffled side to side, “Exactly what I said!” He’d gone from leading a small group of soldiers to being entirely outside command, with title only, and was apparently frustrated by that. I could understand, since it happened to me all too frequently, but didn’t have a lot of sympathy for him.
Cresida, in dusty brown riding leathers, gave me a weird half-smile, the kind you give the uncle of your boyfriend when he’s been staring too long at a family gathering.
I flashed a brief smile in return, awkwardly, waiting on the captain to say more.
She leaned forward, “You’re bleeding. Here,” Cresida took a cloth out and began wiping my check.
Taking it from her hand, I said, “Thanks,” and wiped again, looking at the blood on the cloth. The branch had whipped my face with some vengeance. I tried not to think about the horse I left behind after that.
“I want to call you Sarah, but I guess that isn’t suitable.”
“Uh, just call me Cayce. That’s what I almost always go by.”
“As in luggage? You have such strange names.”
“Yes.” I turned away from her, patience running out. “Captain?”
“It’s a good vantage point. We’ll beat them off, then resume our journey.”
“Against a small number of soldiers, it is. Maybe even a force matching our size.” I left the rest of that unsaid, hoping he’d fill in the details.
Below, a single rider broke through the trees, then more followed in a wedge formation. They stopped at the base of the hill, twelve riders in total. Each of them carried bows, and long, curved swords at their hips. A large blonde man waved at us, big grin on his face. They turned their horses around, went back into the forest.
“Captain, I suggest we leave. They’re probably forming up, working out how to take us. And they’ll go around, attack from our flanks or behind. Not straight up the hill.”
“I believe you’re right, Empress.” He called out, “Withdraw! We’re continuing north!”
***
As the day went by, the Sun seemed to burn off the fog, but we may have simply left the clouds behind, and the way became easier to navigate, if no less desperate. We rode through the forest at a hard pace, switching off horses to give them some rest from our weight. I was assigned a new secondary horse, felt a little guilty about taking it from someone else, but I suppose I doubled as the head of state and messenger girl, and so was important enough to justify their loss.
Since we and the enemy were all riding horses, thankfully, they couldn’t go faster than we could. So, they didn’t catch us, but didn’t let up, either, continuing to dog us into the night. And they knew we had to stop at some point.
The Laemacian captain had chosen a wide meadow atop a long sloping hill, wider than we could hold. As I rode in, the soldiers were hobbling their horses in the center of our camp. Normally, that’d be a good idea, especially if all we feared were monsters, coming to eat the horses. Yet, I didn’t like it, not with a mostly bow-using cavalry about to attack.
The spearmen were forming up in a circle surrounding the horses, archers would be behind them later. Right now, they were felling young trees for fortifications.
I tied my horse up, then went to look for the captain, receiving bows and honorifics, and strange circular hand gestures that I assume were religious as I made my way through the men, and shortly found him. Standing with Gyges and Cresida again, around what should have been a campfire, but would be only stones this night.
Wondering how – and whether – to get his name, I said to the Laemacian, “Captain, I think they’re mostly using light cavalry. Archers. We’re going to need to change up this defense you have.”
He made a frown, as if scolding a young soldier, “Begging the Empress’s pardon, this is the best defense we can make. The area will be ringed with spikes and it will be difficult to approach."
"Ah, so you are planting those spikes as far out as an arrow can fly. Perfect, no need for me to interject.” I folded my arms, awaiting his answer.
The captain stared at the stones with such a gaze as if to discern what was inside them.
Gyges broke the silence, with no enthusiasm whatsoever, “Your Royal Highness-”
“My lady is fine,” I said, not looking at him. “You only need the full title the first time you encounter me.”
I could almost feel his fists clenching and unclenching, Cresida touching his arm, “My lady, I am in agreement with you. I fear being out in the open like this is sheer folly. We should encamp in the forest.”
“No,” I said. “The captain here is correct about the location, but not the strategy.” Hell, I could insult these guys all day long, I was their empress! And anyways, they were both wrong. Mongolians, when attacked by archers would ring their horses, have them lie down, and return arrows. Similar to how would-be-farmers riding across America would ring their wagons to ward off attack by indigenous peoples. And that would work, give us protection, yet I knew a better way from history. “Listen, we are almost certainly going to be attacked. And by horse riding archers. We cannot form a shield wall with the horses in the center. We do not have enough men.”
“How are we to protect the horses then, my lady?” the captain asked. “They are the only way we are going home.”
“Alright, alright, calling you captain over and over isn’t working for me. Here,” I gave a little dip of the knee and not quite a full curtsy. “I’m Cayce, your rightful Empress, what is your name?”
He looked up from the fireless stones, slight shake going through his body, fading as the resolve grew on his face, “Tircade, my lady.”
“Fantastic, very nice to meet you, Captain Tircade. I’m worried about them riding past our lines and loosing their arrows at us. Over and over, in waves of attack. We need to somehow survive their barrage and I believe our best bet is with shield walls. You and I both know that fifty men aren’t enough to include the horses. So, there are two ways to do this.” I held up my right index finger. “One, we have the horses lay down in front of us, the spearmen raise their shields above them. Our archers loose from behind. Two, we hobble the horses in the forest north of here and hope the enemy forces don’t go around us. Choose one, Captain Tircade.”
“My lady . . . I, uhm, please forgive me, what I am about to say, but you are, excuse me, very young and I am old in the ways of battle-”
Cresida cut him off, waving at me, “Bah! She only looks like a girl. If your own soldiers are to believed, this child here is ancient.”
He raised an eyebrow at Cresida and I knew he just did not believe her. Probably wondering why he was escorting a teenage girl, a bitter soon to be ex-captain, a crazy woman, and a useless, pretend mage to Laemacia’s capital city. At that thought, I looked around the mage, but didn’t see him.
I was loathe to test my political power. It didn’t really seem to me that most accepted me as empress, let alone what the burned soldiers must be saying. And I didn’t want to find out just what would happen if they tested my façade. They’d likely have me in irons or strung up before long. But if I didn’t get this man to listen to me, we’d all die here, if the enemy brought enough soldiers.
Tircade gave a bow, saying to Cresida, “Begging my lady’s pardon, but I must do what is right for the men and Laemacia. I must see on our preparations.” He did not look at me while walking away to give his orders.
“Why,” Cresida asked, “isn’t he listening to you?”
“Because she’s not their empress except in her own mind,” said her husband. He then stomped off after the other captain.
Crossing my arms, I stared at the horizon. I should argue with the captain until he either does what I suggest or tells me to shut up. The alternative was to do nothing and then say, ‘I told you so’ as our troops died. And it really, really bothered me that I wasn’t following after the man and berating him.
But I didn’t want to. Something held me back. Pride? Idiocy? The other army was coming, and we were putting our horses in the middle of our camp like they were the prize for overcoming our army.
“Hey,” Cresida put her hand on my arm lightly, as if it was just the two of us alone, “are you, ah, really a goddess? The soldiers who prostrated themselves before say you are. Talaren,” she looked away, then back at me, “says you are.”
I rubbed my eyes and face to push away the tiredness, flinching as I accidentally rubbed the scrape. Let out a breath, and took one in. “Yeah, sure, that’s definitely a word you can call me.”
She gave me a look.
I shook my head a little, “I mean, yeah. I was, am. It’s complicated.”
“Then why did you come to us as a serving girl?”
“I came to you as a noblewoman.”
“Point is, you were in disguise. Was it to bless us? Our marriage has been having troubles, as you well know.”
“Jesus Christ . . . Cresida, no. I take it you want kids?” Looking at the soldiers around us, along their lines, I finally spotted the wizard. He was standing behind a bunch of archers, holding two horses and looking a little lost.
“Of course I do! I didn’t expect our lives to be upended like this, so not right now, but yes, I want kids. Don’t you know that?”
I patted her hand, then sat down on the bare earth. “I’m not, uh, not that kind of deity. I don’t grant wishes, I don’t make women pregnant, and I certainly do not sleep with husbands. And most of all, god damnit, I cannot believe I am having this conversation.”
“Then what good are you?”
“I honestly haven’t got the slightest clue. Come on, let’s make sure Talaren survives the night.”
Author's Note
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