Homage and Honour (50 page)

* * * * *

Beth and Xei’s
battle was alongside the Avuzdel, whose task it was to range behind
the Larg kohorts doing what damage they could, trying to slow down
the advance of the rearmost kohorts desperate to enter the valley
and join the battle.

Allan and
Asniya joined them, having decided that their knife fighting
expertise would be of more use here than up in the valley.

Their battle
was a series of small fights as again and again the Avuzdel cut out
single or small groups of Larg from their fellows and, as Beth said
in an aside to Xei, ‘dealt with them in small chunks’.

“That’s my
girl,” Allan kept encouraging her as she wreaked havoc with her
knife. She was covered in blood, Larg blood and so was Xei.

Beth’s
expertise with her knives came into its own this day. As she
plunged serrated edges into Larg throats, she forgot who she had
once been, the protected and pampered daughter of a southern duke.
She was Vadeln Beth of the Vada, sworn to protect the North,
life-mate of Xei.

: I am of the
North. I am Beth. Together we will survive this my Xei and do our
bit to gain a righteous victory :

* * * * *

Battle (3)

The main Holad
station was located above the heights at the waterfall. There were
other, subsidiary dressing stations behind the crests along the
valley manned by medics from Vadath and Argyll. Some of the Holad
duos from the Ryzcks were running here there and everywhere
administering basic first aid and evacuating injured infantry. They
also helped wounded Lind but could not carry them to the relative
safety of the trees because they were too heavy.

Such was the
resilience of the Lind that many managed to get to the rear on
their own. Once the smaha ointment had been applied and the pain
dulled to manageable levels the Lind were, for the most part, able
to ignore their wounds.

Terez of the
Forty-fifth Ryzck wondered, not for the first time, about this
apparent ability. It was as if, she concluded as she bound up the
wound on a large midnight-blue striped female’s leg, they were able
to isolate that part of their brain that felt pain. She shot that
thought at her Lind Danei who was guarding her as she performed her
ministrations but he didn’t answer and Terez had little time to
ponder or philosophise more, there were too many wounded.

: Tell her
that the bandage should stay as long as she moves slowly and does
not exert herself! :

: She says
that we are in the middle of a war and you are telling her not to
exert herself! :

: Well, tell
her to be careful :

The female
answered this one for herself though her Lindish was so thick that
Terez had difficulty understanding.

“Thank you. I
will stand with the rear ryz but I cannot promise not to fight and
loosen the bandage. We fight for survival.”

“We all do,”
Terez answered, throwing her equipment back into her satchel,
“where’s the next victim?”

“Over there,”
answered Danei, pointing with a paw. “You go, I guard.”

* * * * *

Lynsey and
Bernei were fighting. She saw Rhian and Tadei tackling a large Larg
some lindlengths away and Tana and Tavei beside her.
Great
Andei’s pawprints, the cadets are in the thick of it too!
Ilyei
fell thrashing to the ground with a dead Nalda on his back. She saw
Stasya limping away to seek medical aid for a large tear on her
hindquarters with a distraught Nick.

In fact, every
able-bodied soldier was fighting hard to hold the crest against
wave upon wave of Larg but they
were
holding, she knew it.
Her army was
going to win
this battle.

* * * * *

Yvdr was
growing desperate, try as he might he couldn’t break through. With
a snarl of rage he himself made for the lines of Vada up the slopes
to his right and it was when he was almost at the top that he came
face to face with Lynsey and Bernei.

Yvdr did not
know the identity of the Vada pair, did not know that it was the
Susyc. All he knew was that he was going to kill them, lead his
warriors through the ranks of the hated Ryzcks or die in the
attempt. He had realised that, to win, his kohorts would have to
take the crests on both sides of the valley. As his ancestors had
come to understand at the end all those years ago now, the army
that held the high ground would be the winner. The heavier weight
of the Larg was balanced by these heights and the Vada, they were
the linchpin. Break the Vada and the northern army would fall
apart. He
had
to gain the heights.

He leapt at
Lynsey and Bernei and so hard and high was his leap that she
managed only a feeble swing at his chest before the huge angry body
landed on top of them. As Yvdr came down his great jaws opened, his
head twisting as he went for Bernei’s throat. Despite the leather
protective shield his teeth pressed through and into Bernei’s
flesh.

Bernei gurgled
as Yvdr’s incisors penetrated deep and the blood began to seep
through into his windpipe. With another snarl, Yvdr’s jaws snapped
shut and he pulled his head back, dragging with it armour, hair,
skin and bleeding tissue.

Lynsey sensed
Bernei’s surprise and also his realisation that his wound was a
fatal one.

Despair and
rage filled Lynsey. She was going to kill this Larg. Her sword arm
was pinned under Bernei. He was still breathing, gurgling, gasping
breaths as he tried to breathe air into lungs that were filling
with blood.

With her free
hand she scrabbled for the dagger in her belt, found it and drew it
out. She slashed at Yvdr’s throat, the same second as the
Kohortangan was pulling his face away to look for another victim.
It wasn’t the most dexterous of strokes but it was enough. The
knife went in and Lynsey had the satisfaction of seeing Yvdr
stagger and a rush of bright blood spurt out. Mortally wounded, he
crashed to the ground beside the dying Bernei.

Lynsey lay and
let the sounds of battle drift over her, merging her mind with her
Bernei’s more fully than she had ever done before and with an
acceptance of what was going to happen. This joining of minds was
the final one, the unbreakable one, their minds were as one and
when Bernei took his last breath so too would she. It was only
during these last moments of her life that Lynsey realised the full
extent of Bernei’s mind powers. Why, during all their years
together he had only shown her a fraction of what he was capable
of!

:
Understanding comes at the end :

Bernei tried to
take another breath and failed. Lynsey closed her eyes.

Tana and Tavei
saw them fall.

: Susyc
Johan :
Tavei ‘sent’ the image of their deaths to Johan and
Baltimalya. She carried a shocked Johan forward to take Lynsey’s
place.

* * * * *

A steady stream
of walking wounded began to make their painful way in the direction
of the main Holad Station not long after the battle commenced.

The doctors,
medics and nurses dealt with each casualty in turn, smearing smaha
on the bites and claw slashes and stitching up the tears. Many
wounded, the least hurt, returned to the battle lines as soon as
they could, the more seriously hurt remained with the Holad,
forming an additional protective ring round the area.

As Hannah
worked she worried about what was happening in the battle, how
Beth, Xei, Tana and Tavei were making out, Scott too, her brother,
fighting in the Garda ranks. What would her parents say if he was
to die? She couldn’t help but hear the roars of survival and death.
Snarls and howls were predominant but she could also hear the
shouts of the Susas and other Commanders as they urged their men,
women and Lind to greater efforts. She tried not to think about the
more badly hurt who would be lying on the bloody ground, too
damaged to drag themselves away. She could do nothing for them now.
After the battle was over, the medics would go in and retrieve
their bleeding bodies and bring them to the Holad. If the North
lost, it would not matter. The Larg would kill them all. The Larg
did not succour their wounded. They had no Holad. If a warrior was
too badly hurt to survive he was either left to die or one of his
battle mates would administer the coup-de-grâce.

It was best not
to think about what was happening in the valley.

: We are
holding :
Kolyei supplied the information as she tied off the
last stitch on the exposed back of a young Garda infantrywoman. She
would be fine, Hannah decided as she rose to her feet after giving
the woman her most reassuring smile. Casualties were ever coming
but she had expected that. She gave a half-wave to her brother Andy
who was industriously sewing away closing a large gash in the side
of a Lind. A Vada Lind she realised as she caught sight of the
concerned face of her vadeln as he watched the process.

She could hear
his voice pleading with her to hold on, that the hurts would go
away, to stay calm, that the smaha would stop the pain.

“Enya, you’re
going to be okay.”

: The Larg
:
an agitated Kolyei informed her
: have committed the rest
of the kohorts. Baltimalya will send in the horses and other
Lindars now :

Hannah listened
to the clamour that was the battle. Yes, she could hear the howls
of the Larg as the parts of the Northern Army that had been hidden
among the trees began their charge.

When word came
of the success of Captain Wylie’s mission, it gave heart to the
beleaguered northern army.

Brigadier
Halland and his ‘Heavies’ came into their own that day. Gone was
his reluctance to fight. He was filled with hatred for the Larg.
The troopers were shouting, the horses neighing as they lumbered
into a trot then a canter and swept over the rise and into
battle.

Their flagged
lances were long and sharp. Their helmets and breastplates shone.
Brigadier Halland ordered the ‘death-charge’.

The Larg were
shocked. They had never seen anything this big and menacing and it
was heading straight for them! Their ranks quivered but turned to
meet the threat.

The Lindars and
‘Lights’ on either side of the ‘Heavies’ charged with the
four-hoofed ‘battlewagons’.

The gigantic
horses swept through the Larg leaving a swathe of dead and dying
behind. They reformed and began to push the kohorts deeper into the
valley. The hooves of the battle steeds pounded the Larg to a
bloody pulp, the lances and swords of the troopers sliced through
their bodies.

* * * * *

On both sides
of the valley wave after wave of Larg were still attacking the
Militia and the Garda. As during the Battle of the Alliance, the
Lind fought side by side with their human allies but the Larg were
large and heavy and the Garda and Militia began to struggle to hold
the shield-wall.

General Liam
Durand went down, crushed beneath the body of one of the enemy and
positive that he was about to die.

Then old Harld
appeared and proved that his skill with a sword had not lessened
with time and advancing years.

“Experience
counts for something,” he shouted, “take that you brute,” and his
sword descended to cleave apart the Larg’s skull. It sliced in only
a few inches away from the front of Liam’s nose. Alya agreed as she
finished their enemy off, crushing his muzzle in her jaws. Ignoring
the melee around then, the two managed to drag Liam out from under
the carcass.

“Bet you’re
glad we came now,” Harld shouted.

“Indeed,”
answered Liam as he reached for the sword he had dropped and looked
around to see what was happening. “Don’t know how long we’ll be
able to hold on though.”

“Long enough,”
said Harld who had the advantage of being in constant touch through
Alya with the communications pivot. “I feel in my old bones that
the day will be ours.”

* * * * *

: Every
soldier is to stand firm on the valley sides :
Baltimalya
relayed Johan’s order
: Lindars and cavalry push the Larg in,
slow and steady does it :

Step by bloody
step the ferocious Larg were forced deeper into the valley. For
every lindlength achieved, more and more Lind and cavalry were hurt
but they kept on pushing until at last the Larg were congregated in
the deepest part of the valley floor. They weren’t giving up, they
kept on attacking; casualties continued to fill the dressing
stations but the pep had gone out of them with the death of
Yvdr.

Johan sensed
the difference in attitude and came to a rapid decision after
weighing up the pros and cons. He could either continue to hold the
Larg in the valley or he could let them go. If they remained here
they would continue to attack until they were all dead and they
would take many a Lind and human with them. To the logical Johan
this was unacceptable. He decided to let them go.

On his orders
the Lindars and cavalry plugging the Larg inside the valley
parted.

The Larg seized
their chance.

Those Lind
still able to run followed them, making sure that no Larg broke
away. The Larg ran, tails between their legs.

So it was that
the defeated Larg army returned to struggle over what was left of
the Ice Bridge. Most drowned in the ice-cold waters but a few
hundred, the strongest, made it.

There were a
few isolated incidents but they instigated few fights to the death.
It was as if their desire for victory was gone. All they wanted was
to go home to lick their wounds, see their elns and ltsctas
again.