Imager’s Battalion

Quaeryt eased his staff from the leathers and laid it across his thighs, evenly balanced. “Don’t give the order to charge until I tell you.”

Meinyt nodded.

“Voltyr, Shaelyt! Image now!”

The flash of light was momentary, and not quite all the rubble barrier vanished-leaving some spears and rubble about a half yard into the approach road on each side.

“Imagers! Remain with first squad!” Quaeryt lowered his voice and said to Meinyt, “I’ll have to lead this charge through the pikes, but your men will have to be close behind.”

“They’ll be on your heels.”

Quaeryt urged the mare forward, strengthening his shields. Even as he rode forward, the lead company of Fifth Regiment close behind, he could see more pikemen moving toward the center of the road.

Abruptly smoke and pepper sprayed into the arrayed pikes, and some of the unwieldly weapons wavered.

Quaeryt formed his shields into an unseen wedge, linking them to the mass of mounts behind him. As the shields impacted the first pikes, he could feel pressure everywhere, as if he were being fed into an olive press or a grape press. Then suddenly the constriction vanished, and pikes and pikemen sprayed aside from the shields. For a moment Quaeryt felt as though he were burning up, but that was followed by a chill like ice water cascading over him.

Ahead was open pavement. To the right, he corrected himself, but to the left were more Bovarians who moved toward the attacking troopers.

He contracted his shields to cover just himself and the mare and eased her to the side of the square he was riding across-away from the Bovarians. Looking around, he could find no one before him, just the empty square, but as he turned the mare, he saw the Bovarian reinforcements meet the oncoming troopers.

For several moments, and then for longer, perhaps half a quint, the Bovarians gave ground, slowly at first, and then more quickly. Then, the remaining Bovarian pikemen and footmen dropped their heavy square shields and began to run.

In less than another quint, the square below the bridge held only Telaryn troopers and the long shadows cast by a sun that had barely risen. All this so early? With a long day yet ahead?

Shaking his head, Quaeryt rode back to rejoin the imager undercaptains, all of whom looked to be unhurt, although Threkhyl’s eyes were twitching, and his face was pale. Baelthm’s countenance remained grayish. “Undercaptain Threkhyl, Undercaptain Baelthm, no more imaging today unless your own life is threatened. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir…” came the low rejoinder.

“I want you healthy for the rest of the campaign, and you won’t be if you do too much on any one day. Second, I’d like to say I very much appreciated the smoke and pepper. It made what I had to do much easier.”

“Sir…” murmured Voltyr, gesturing.

Quaeryt followed the gesture with his eyes to see Skarpa riding up at the head of Third Regiment.

“If you and the undercaptains would join us … We do have more to do.”

“Yes, sir.” After gesturing to the undercaptains, Quaeryt turned the mare and rode in behind the commander, who followed a single company of his first battalion, the remainder of Third Regiment closing up behind the imagers who had taken station on Quaeryt.

“With me, Subcommander,” said Skarpa, looking back.

Quaeryt eased his mount forward.

“How are your imagers?”

“Two are likely finished for the day. Three can do smoke and pepper, possibly some small barrier removal. One can do more than that.”

Skarpa nodded. “I just received another dispatch. The Bovarians are massing on the west road. They’ve abandoned their position on the east road. We’re to strike them from behind as hard as we can and as soon as we can.”

“How far ahead is that?” Quaeryt glanced around as they rode out of the bridge square. As in other towns and cities they had entered, all doors were closed, all shuttered fastened tight, and no one appeared anywhere on the streets or in the alleys. The shops on the main avenue were largely built of a yellowish brick, with pale red tile roofs in most cases. A few were of wood, and one or two had been constructed of a red stone. All looked well kept.

“Not quite two milles.”

Alert as he tried to be, Quaeryt could detect no sign of other Bovarians. After riding perhaps a half mille, or a bit longer, the column came to another square, this one with a center pedestal bearing a statue of a man on horseback. Around the pedestal was a low redstone wall, topped with an iron railing.

Definitely Naming there, thought Quaeryt as he studied the square, vacant except for the Telaryn troopers, and the raised stone platform on which the statue had been set.

After another hundred yards or so, farther ahead, Quaeryt caught a glimpse of light on metal, and then the sight of armored cavalry charging from a side avenue into one of the companies of Fifth Regiment. Meinyt’s troopers appeared to be prepared, moving out of the way and then attacking mounts or men from the rear while another company rode in behind the armored riders.

As Skarpa slowed Third Regiment, Quaeryt kept his head and eyes moving, wondering when and if another force would charge out of a side street or boulevard. He saw nothing, and before long the column was moving again, past fallen men and mounts moved out of the road, with perhaps a squad tending to Telaryn wounded.

The dwellings along the avenue increased in size with each block they traveled, and the space between the houses increased as well. Many of the dwellings had walls encircling them, and stables and outbuildings. Then, ahead, Quaeryt caught sight of two large stone gateposts, one on each side of the avenue. As he rode closer, he saw that there were no gates, nor were there any houses immediately beyond the gates, but an expanse of fields, whose plants or grasses had largely been trampled flat. Overlooking the fields on the west side of the avenue that had become a narrower but still stone-paved road was a low ridge.

Abruptly Quaeryt realized that the eastern side of that ridge held masses of men and mounts, and it appeared that, under the press of the larger Telaryn forces, the Bovarians had withdrawn onto what looked to be the hillside estate of a High Holder. Small catapults flung dark objects into the Telaryn forces, objects that exploded into crimson-greenish-yellow fire, clinging to whatever they hit.

Fifth Regiment had already turned westward to reinforce the Telaryn forces pressing the Bovarians, but the Bovarian line, roughly halfway up the gentle slope, appeared to be holding their own, possibly because of the effects of the Antiagon Fire grenades.

“Antiagon Fire! We need to get closer,” Quaeryt yelled to Skarpa.

“Second company, escort the imagers forward! Captain, you’re under the subcommander’s orders!”

“Sir!” called a muscularly rotund captain. “Over here!”

“Shaelyt, Voltyr, Desyrk! With me.”

The second company edged onto the left flank of Fifth Regiment, increasing the pace until the riders were moving past the column at what Quaeryt thought might be a canter. Even so, close to a quint passed before they reached the rear of the Telaryn forces.

“To the left, there!” called Quaeryt, gesturing toward what looked to be a gap between the advancing Telaryn troopers.

That “gap” was an irrigation ditch, empty but somewhat muddy. Quaeryt didn’t care about the mud, but he did slow the mare. Taking the ditch was still faster than trying to force his way through Deucalon’s troopers, although the troopers did give way slightly as they saw the troopers leading officers along the ditch.

Quaeryt did overhear a few muttered remarks.

“… officers wanting to get into battle … friggin’ idiots…”

“… let ’em…”

Idiots? With what you want, is there any choice? He didn’t answer his own question, but concentrated on getting to where he could do something.

In the end, Quaeryt and the imagers could only reach the base of the ridge. He reined up and gestured for the others to halt as well. He was still a good two hundred yards from the catapults near the top of the ridgelike rise.