Chapter seventy-nine

The Walls of Ortia

Kratos stood with the General. He was deeply dissatisfied.

‘I asked you to do one simple thing, and yet you have been defeated again. Am I surrounded by useless fools? It seems that, as I should have known at the beginning, that I will have to do it myself’

Redcloak’s general bowed low – it was almost a cringe.  The general’s voice was tremulous.

‘I am sorry, but why did you need us? Can there really be anything that scares you in the old city?’

Kratos stood proud and angry.  He appeared to be whispering something under his breath.

‘No of course not. There is no-one. I just wished you to make my task a little easier…’

‘How will you get in now?’ asked the captain

Kratos grinned

‘I’ll track her stink; it is very strong’

The Tlaxacan looked at him in puzzlement.

‘How…?’ he began, but Kratos was paying him no attention. His eyes were fixed on the white stone of the City.

‘Amranta’ he murmured, and was gone.

The general set to kill as many elves as he could before the inevitable retreat. He calculated that his chances of succeeding in that were very high.  There would be some grim satisfaction in this battle after all.

***

A fanfare blared from the walls. Everyone looked up for a second and the spell of melee was momentarily broken. There was a massive squeak as the eastern gate was opened and out rode General Titanius with five hundred mounted elves. There was no thought of tactics: they just rode straight for the centre of the group encircling the Pale Flame Knights and Viola’s little group. Their only thought was to open a passage back to the gate.

Dom was the first to realise what was going on. He hissed at Viola as he parried blows from the Tlaxacans around him. Occasionally a blow would strike him on the arm, or a spear would sneak under his defences, but each time the blows that would have maimed a man merely scratched him. He had never craved the job of bodyguard but he now realised what a good one he could be.

‘Tillie’ he shouted, ‘get Viola back inside, quickly…’

Potentilla jumped forward and chose a tall, broad, Tlaxacan soldier. She stabbed him under the ribcage with one deft movement and then, as he doubled up, she pushed him backwards, so that he fell heavily against the troops behind him. There was a moment of chaos, just enough to allow Viola to scuttle to where Dom was standing. Kath and she ran through the passageway made temporarily by the elven knights and their horses. Dom, no soldier, and now bleeding in a dozen places, careered after them. This was not the way he planned to die.

Once Potentilla had seen her friends safely enter the western gate she returned to her station. She had never given dying a single thought; the job of a soldier was to fight, whatever the consequences. She took out her bow and prepared to defend the knights. She now had her back to the wall.  A commanding voice shouted at her.

‘Stand down, lieutenant’

She looked up – it was General Titanius, in full Imperial regalia riding a chestnut mare. He seemed to have no idea who she was, even though they had met briefly in Visneoria.

‘Sir!’ she responded crisply, ‘but what should I do, once I have stood down?’

Titanius looked up at the newly reinvigorated battlements.  His voice was as unyielding as their stone

‘Get inside and on to the walls, where your archery skills will be more valuable’

Potentilla couldn’t keep surprise and disappointment out of her voice.

‘But, sir – you are very heavily pressed’

He shook his head. For a moment they were several yards from the melee, as the Imperial cavalry surged forward – a puff of air blowing against a gale.

‘No, you are mistaken, there are elves inside who need you more than I do’

Potentilla looked as if she had just been punched in the stomach. Her eyes pleaded.

‘Sir, I would prefer to fight with you; this is where the danger is greatest’

He barked at her savagely.

‘That was a direct order, Lieutenant Potentilla’

She still hesitated for a second.

‘Now go, soldier…’

She went; never realising that this was no rebuff but an acknowledgement of her importance.

Titanius waited until she had safely returned through the gate and then had it closed tight.  He paused just long enough for his troops to provide cover for the retreating Pale Flame Knights and the Amanskians, whose job had been done. Then he rallied what was left of his Imperial cavalry together for one final charge.  His one last thought was that the Emperor, so ready to drop him in life, would find it harder to repudiate him in death