Men pushing five boxes resting on two-wheeled carts caught Zara’s attention. The front and backs of the boxes were covered with holes. Long sturdy looking arrows with menacing razor-sharp points poked out of each hole.
“What are those?” She asked, pointing at the carts.
“Hwachas,” replied Toulou. “I obtained them from Koryyo, a kingdom south of the Hann. The demon-sorcerer will taste of their fury soon enough.”
Zara looked at Toulou, fascinated, almost captivated. Almost. “How did you come about all of these resources?”
“Through my travels.” Toulou smiled as if he were aware of how vague he was being.
The queen pressed her lips irately. “Very well, Toulou. Keep your secrets. Just answer this: what brought you to the life of a mercenary?”
“War and profit, your majesty. My two interests.”
Zara lowered her voice. “Are there any other interests?”
Toulou stared at the queen, allowing the question to go unanswered a little longer than protocol demanded.
A tingle raced through Zara.
“Perhaps,” Toulou said. He didn’t elaborate.
Zara didn’t insist on it. She bade farewell and headed back to her palanquin, feeling a tad light headed. It must have been the day’s warmth.
The tower had no windows, yet Ajunge could see through its solid walls as if there was no obstacle to block his view of the outside. He saw an army approaching his tower. The Zanjiian queen had still not given up. What a fool that woman was. He would have to teach her another lesson...a lesson scrawled in the blood of another doomed army. Perhaps afterward she would submit of her own accord. And then again perhaps not. The demon-sorcerer grinned in anticipation of another one-sided battle. He raised his arms to summon his hosts...
Five thousand men, foot and cavalry, were arrayed across a swaying sea of grass, leading to the demon-sorcerer’s tower. This was the biggest force fielded by the Zanjiian queen. The infantry was spearheaded by the empee. The southern warriors carried large elephant hide shields, spanning head to toe, and wide-bladed stabbing spears. They wore only loincloths, feather plumed headdresses and sandals. The Zanjiian infantry soldiers were a bit more covered. They wore chain links over leather-armored kilts and carried their own native variations of empee shields and spears.
The heavy infantry hefted thick wooden shields and short broad swords. They marched in formation as well as the empee. Zanjiians with crossbows were clustered in front of the infantry, cavalry in the van, led by the Tartors. Zanjiian heavy cavalry occupied the middle of the cavalry line. Light cavalry were on both flanks behind the hwacha positions.
A ray of sun bright light emanated from the tower like a gleaming blade, bringing forth a horde of blade-limbed demon men. The ground quaked and springing from the earth in thick plumes of dirt and flying grass were the massive rhino-apes. The demon-men sliced the grass around them, demonstrating the lethality of their blade-sharp limbs. The rhino-apes bobbed their spiked clubs in bestial displays of ardor.
The demon-sorcerers’ minions surged forward in a crashing wave of uncoordinated ferocity.
Humans lit fuses behind the hwachas. Seconds later streams of arrows ignited by propellant powder zipped from the wheeled launchers, whistling across the field. Hundreds of the projectiles sailed into the packed mass of rhino-apes and demon-men striking them down in droves.
The Tartors on both flanks galloped forward, leading the Zanjiian cavalry on a counter charge toward the enemy’s flanks. They opened up with a barrage of arrows from their composite bows.
A rain of arching arrows swished down upon the enemy warriors hitting those the hwacha arrows missed. Half the demon-men went after the Tartor and Zanjiian horsemen. The human cavalry fled and the demon-men, who were as fast as horses, pursued. But the Tartors were as deadly in flight as when on the attack. They twisted in their saddles and released flurries of arrows that left scores of pursuing demon-men tumbling in the grass dead or injured.
The Zanjiian horsemen who mastered the rearward shot to good effect lobbed arrows that struck their marks nearly as often as Tartor arrows. The Tartor flag bearer shifted pennants, signaling the end of the retreat. As one, Tartors and Zanjiians wheeled their mounts about and thundered straight into the teeth of the demon-men’s pursuit.
An arrow storm blew through their ranks and more demon-men fell with shafts sticking out of their bodies. Heavy Zanjiian cavalry followed behind the light cavalry slicing through the disorganized demon-men with swords, javelins and lances. The demon-men that recovered from the severity of the human attack struck hard. Their razor arms went into motion. Men were slashed open while still mounted or dismembered or impaled while on the ground. Horses were sliced or gutted. But the heavy cavalry continued to pressure the demon-men, riding many of them down like elephants trampling grass.
The empee received the full brunt of the rhino-apes’ charge. The enormous beasts pressed forward, their combined strength bending the middle of the human infantry line almost to the breaking point. The rhino-apes’ front ranks added to the fury of their momentum, smashing human skulls and cracking shields with their clubs. The human center buckled further. Empee warriors thrust with furious precision, sinking their stabbing spears into a wall of rhino-ape hide. The Zanjiians poured in behind the empee, supporting the center, preventing it from shattering.
The rhino-apes’ single-minded focus on the middle caused them to neglect their flanks. On the mid flanks, crossbowmen fired off volleys of
