slightly, in the direction of the pikemen, Quaeryt glanced down as he rode through the wide breach in the earthworks, catching sight of the soles of a pair of boots, and then the backside of a figure in blue-gray. He swallowed, fully understanding what Threkhyl had meant by his question earlier. The ginger-bearded imager-and likely the others-had “simply” flattened the earthworks back into the trenches behind the raised clay and dirt, and that imaging had instantly buried any and all defenders standing on the stepped rear surface of the earthworks or in the trenches below.
At that moment Quaeryt heard the rumble of hoofs, and a company or more of horsemen charged along a narrow road from Villerive toward Calkoran’s troopers. The old major clearly expected something like that, because second company had already re-formed and rode toward the defenders.
Quaeryt didn’t want to see second company forced back into the pikemen.
“First company! On me!” He urged the mare forward, keeping his personal shields close to him and his mount-until the last moment before they reached the sharpened ends of the pikes, when he spread them like a wedge as he plunged into the tightly packed mass of men, linking the shields to the nearest first company mounts as well.
Weapons and pikemen sprayed everywhere, and Quaeryt immediately shrank and unlinked his shields, trying to save his imaging strength as much as possible. Behind him, Ghaelyn’s men began to cut down the defenders. Before him, defenders on the far side of the roughly circular formation dropped their pikes and ran, unable to turn the long and unwieldy weapons in time to face a charge from the rear.
Quaeryt turned gradually, leading first company toward the mounted forces of the defenders, only to find that few of them remained, as second company had been joined by third and fourth companies, and all three were riding toward the town along the road that appeared to lead to the bridge over the River Aluse.
As he led first company after the three companies, letting the Khellans take the lead, from what Quaeryt could see, the streets and sidewalks of the town were empty, the windows largely shuttered, and not even a stray dog ran into or out of the narrow alleyways. He eased back his cap and blotted his forehead and his temples to keep the sweat from running into his eyes, aware once more of just how hot and damp Villerive was in midharvest.
He kept riding, glancing to one side and the other as well as ahead, where the remnants of the Bovarian cavalry fled the Khellans, making for the bridge that was less than a half mille away.
Quaeryt glanced toward the bridge over the River Aluse. The road they had followed had turned and angled into the main avenue that, in turn, ran straight into the bridge approachway. At a point just beyond the end of the approach and the beginning of the bridge proper, there was a stone wall three yards in height. Two heavy iron- bound gates, now open, afforded the only break in that gray stone barrier.
The fleeing Bovarians, both those mounted and those on foot, sprinted toward the gates, clearly hoping to get behind them and close them, in order to deny the Telaryn forces access to the bridge and the main part of Villerive.
Calkoran understood that, because the Khellans pressed their mounts up the approach to the bridge, cutting down Bovarian stragglers … but the gates were beginning to close as the Bovarians on the bridge obviously decided to leave the last of the fleeing defenders to the Khellan blades.
Quaeryt turned. “Voltyr! Image something to break the gates or keep them from closing!”
“Yes, sir!”
For a long moment the gates continued to close. Then, the gate on the right sagged and crashed forward onto the paving stones of the approach.
The Bovarians behind the gates abandoned their efforts to close the gates and tried to flee, but the Khellans were through the gates in moments, their blades flashing.
Quaeryt signaled first company to a halt. Adding another company to the melee on an already narrow bridge wouldn’t help matters. He watched in not quite dispassionate awe as the Khellans destroyed the few handfuls of Bovarians remaining. While a Khellan occasionally fell, that was seldom indeed, Quaeryt could see.
After the last of the Bovarians went down under the Khellan sabres, or jumped or dived off the side of the bridge into the dark waters below, the three companies re-formed, one-fourth company, Quaeryt could tell- remaining beyond the gate. Major Calkoran led the other two back through the gates and toward Quaeryt.
“Sir?” asked the older major.
“Hold the approach to the bridge against any Bovarians.”
“Yes, sir.”
“First company! Hold here!” Quaeryt rode back toward the gates and through them along the east side of the bridge, wide enough for three wagons abreast, with an iron railing about a yard and a half high on each side. As he passed Major Arion, Quaeryt glanced to the other side of the bridge, taking in the second set of iron gates there, gates that were now closed.
Yet, in the distance, both in front of him and behind him to the southeast, Quaeryt heard horns and bells, both imbued with a frantic urgency, and that spoke to Skarpa’s success-and that the Bovarian defenders were calling for reinforcements.
Quaeryt looked back, but saw-besides first, second, and third companies-no other riders or troopers on the approachway or the main avenue to the south. Fifth Battalion was alone. When he looked to the north end of the bridge, he saw that the gates there, gates that had been closed, were now opening.
Even through that narrow, if widening aperture, he could see hundreds, if not thousands, of armed Bovarians lined up as far as his eyes could see, ready to storm across the bridge. Quaeryt had no idea where Skarpa and Meinyt were, but he doubted, fierce as the Khellans were, and comparatively narrow as the bridge was, that less than four hundred troopers could hold off thousands, not without severe losses, and not for that long.
“Imagers! On me!” Except he didn’t have time to wait on them.
He rode forward until he was less than fifty yards from the oncoming Bovarian foot, led, of course, by three rows of pikes. There, he reined up and concentrated on linking to the river below-there had to be warmth there, after such a long hot summer and harvest! He also concentrated on linking and drawing from the advancing mass of blue-gray clad Bovarian soldiers, all of them.
Then he pictured a stone wall to the north of the one holding the gates that had just opened to the flood of Bovarian troopers, a solid gray stone wall at the edge of the bluff to the west of the bridge, across the bridge and then at the edge of the east bluff.
A blinding flash of light seared across him, followed by a chill that cut through his body like a thousand knives. Then came thunder, and hail that slammed into his body, no longer protected by his personal shields, shields that had somehow vanished. His muscles felt like watery jelly, yet he could see, surprisingly, if barely, through a splitting headache and searing flashes of light that stabbed into his eyes like daggers.
When he could finally straighten up, hail and ice flowed off him and his uniform and down off the mare’s coat. The roadway of the bridge was also white with ice and hail. Slowly, he looked toward the north end of the bridge.
Beginning less than twenty yards from him, at least two hundred ice-covered troopers lay scattered and frozen on the bridge between him and the open gates. Beyond the gates were more ice-covered bodies, frozen where they stood, wedged and welded together in ice. Farther to the north was a featureless gray stone wall running along the river bluff and across the point where the approach ended and the bridge proper began. Quaeryt wondered yet how many more ice-covered bodies lay sprawled beyond the wall he had imaged.
Then he shook his head-and was rewarded with an even more intense flash of pain, so much so that he couldn’t see for a moment. He turned in the saddle … slowly. “Arion! Get your men to that gate, and get it closed.” He looked at Shaelyt and Voltyr who were riding slowly toward him. “You two need to image beams and bars in
