The Coastal Kingdoms of Olvion: Book Two of The Chronicles of Olvion (51 page)

With all of his preparations made, Lampte returned to his wagon which had now been relocated to the extreme rear of the barricades, almost on the edge of the seawall.  He climbed up and took a last look.  He nodded to himself.  The outlanders would have to fight their way through every remaining man in the town guard before he would himself be in any danger.  He told himself that was because it was crucial that he remained apprised of the progress of the battle so he could command the actions of his troops.  Deep inside, though, he knew the truth; self-preservation was his most important consideration.

***

The pirates who were dispatched to recapture the eastern piers had finally gotten sufficient numbers of people into position for a quick assault on the bridge.  They had people bunched up on either side of the span and were working up their courage to try to make the twenty five yard sprint.  If things went their way the sight of so many people attacking at once would frighten the outlanders to the point that they would lose their nerve and abandon the positions into which they were dug.  Failing that, they hoped to hit the defenders with so many people that they would be pushed back allowing more and more of the pirates to swarm around them and hit them from all sides.

The worst part of either of those plans was the fact that they were not facing terrified farmers and shopkeepers like they usually faced when attacking towns.  These were trained soldiers, most of whom had considerable experience in combat against an enemy which was far more formidable than a group of seagoing pillagers.

Another fly in their ointment was the layout of the bridge.  It was long and the sides were not railed.  That made it tough to flood with hundreds of attackers at the same time without a number of them being pushed into the water or shot down by archers.  Indeed the narrowness of the bridge made it certain that every launched arrow would find a target.  The bridge was only twenty five feet in width which would accommodate a span of ten people at the most.  The only reason the Olvionis had been able to capture it was because most of the pirates from whom they had taken it had stationed themselves out on the piers instead of on the bridge itself.  It made sense from their perspective because the piers was where they had expected the fight to materialize.  The only threat they had expected to face was from ships attempting to tie up and offload fighters.

Taggart could see the men at the other end of the bridge edging closer to the structure.  They were as ready as they would ever be, but someone had to go first and they all knew that whomever was in the vanguard of the attack would most likely be picked off by Taggart’s archers.  They were right.  At a distance of twenty five yards there was not much hope for the first few rows of attackers.  All of the archers were holding their arrows nocked and drawn.  Taggart had his bow in the same condition.  There were ten warriors with javelin and five with spears.  Everyone else was more conventionally armed with swords, hammers, axes and daggers.

As Taggart watched, a few men made fake attempts to draw their fire by stepping onto the bridge then quickly dashing back off.  Taggart was in no hurry.  Every moment they delayed their attack was putting the fleet closer to the piers, but he thought he might be able to instill a little more fear in them.  He ordered two bowmen, both females, to ready their weapons and do their best to hit the next pirate who tried it.  A minute later a pirate wearing just trouser and no shirt darted out and spun to dash back into the concealing weeds.  The archers saw the movement, estimated where he would be as he tried to get back to safety, and both launched their arrows.  One missed, but the other hit him in the posterior.  The pirate squealed in pain and the Olvionis roared with laughter.  It was a light moment that passed quickly.  The sails of the approaching fleet were growing nearer, and the pirates knew that they must act quickly or lose the reason to act at all.  Taggart read their actions and called for his people to ready themselves.

The pirates took a last look toward the barricades, obviously hoping that they would be reinforced with more people.  They saw the main force of the invaders formed up and facing the barricades and knew that help would not arrive until after the impending outlander attack was defeated.  They finally gathered their courage and poured out onto the bridge yelling and shouting to fight their fear.

The moment the other side of the span was filled with bodies Taggart gave the order to pick targets and shoot at will.  Twenty one arrows, including Taggart’s, streaked straight across the bridge and twenty one pirates fell immediately.  Their bodies created a slight impediment to the pirates behind them, causing them to leap over their dead brethren.  Some of those fighters were caught by flying arrows in mid-leap and added their corpses to those of their comrades.  When the third volley struck there were more than fifty dead men choking the entrance to the bridge.  The one thing the pirates had was numbers, and they were slowly getting around the obstacles created by their dead friends and running forward. 

At the halfway point on the span another pileup formed because at that distance no trained Olvioni archer could miss.  Every arrow fired resulted in a dead or bleeding pirate.  Still they came on, leaving a hundred of their brothers lifeless behind them.

At a distance of five yards, ten javelin shot forward and skewered that many attackers.  The additional mayhem brought by the falling bodies bought the archers a chance to let loose another barrage with deadly results.

Then Taggart was tossing his bow aside and swinging left and right with his mace.  Bodies, blood and helmets flew into the air as the only Earthling on this planet threw his weight and strength into the effort.  In the first second of fighting he slew eight pirates.  The sight was so unsettling to the men behind the fallen that they actually paused before being pushed forward by their following troops.

The other warriors fell upon the enemy, hacking and stabbing.  People screamed and died on both sides.  The smell of blood, voided bowels and opened bodies was strong, reminding Taggart of some of the battles he’d fought against the Grey Ones.

Taggart dodged a lance thrust from the right and took off the man’s arm.  A sword stabbed in from his right and caught him in the fleshy part of his shoulder.  He caved in that attacker’s face with the hilt of his mace and narrowly avoided another killing stab by backhanding a pirate with his other empty hand.  The man fell to his knees from the blow and Taggart put him out of the fight by stomping on his collarbone.

The Olvionis were doing well, but the sheer weight of the body of surging pirates was pushing them back.  Taggart did all that he could to stall them at the bridgehead, but he was forced to retreat with his people. 

Then, instead of defending only their front, pirates began slipping around to their flank on the left.  The Olvionis were now defending against a two pronged attack.  Taggart saw his warriors starting to fall with more regularity.  He watched horrified as a woman archer was literally hacked into pieces by a pirate a few feet from where he stood.  It did not help her that he was able to push his way over and cave in the man’s face.

A thrown axe clipped the side of his head.  It didn’t land cleanly, but it rattled his vision and cut a notch in his ear.  He stumbled backward, recovering in time to kick an attacker in the stomach.  The man folded over and the mace finished his attack and his life.  Someone grabbed his mace and another pirate also latched onto it.  He had to release it or be dragged down.  He jumped back and snatched his sword from its sheath.  Now he leapt forward in fury, thrusting the blade out in front of himself.  He pierced the breastplate of one of his attackers and wrenched it free in time to chop to his left and behead another.  Then a sword sliced him across the calf from behind.  He nearly fell, but turned in time to deflect another strike from the same pirate.  This man was larger than his brothers and had somehow managed to sneak around behind him.  He had attempted to hamstring the Olvioni leader, but an unexpected last second movement caused the sword to strike higher up on Taggart’s leg.  The wound was painful but not disabling.  Just as he was about to stab his antagonist an arrow jutted out from the pirate’s chest.  When he fell Taggart saw one of his archers already drawing another shaft.  She died a second later when another attacker clubbed her with a war hammer.  Taggart roared in a mixture anger and sadness and jumped back to slice the man’s arm and a third of his ribcage from his body.  The pirate’s blood splashed over his face and vest.

Taggart knew they were losing.  The pirates were now coming around their right side.  They were almost completely surrounded.  He saw and heard his people dying, and there was nothing he could do about it.  He was barely staying upright himself on account of his wounds and loss of blood. 

Because of his height Taggart could see that he had only fifty or so warriors still left standing.  They had formed up beside and around him.  He was still the big gun and he did his best to use his size and strength to give whatever advantage he could.  He had also become the main target of the enemy who saw the damage he was inflicting upon them.  The warriors were now fighting a purely defensive battle.  They still scored kills, but the bridge was now entirely open, and any reinforcements would be able to surge out onto the piers and deny landfall to the invasion fleet.

Taggart saw a warrior take a dagger to the back and jumped forward to catch him before he fell.  As he reached out a war hammer caught him.  The heavy weapon caught his shoulder first then skipped past to hit him on the temple.  He fell backwards and found himself looking up at the pinkish sky.  A moment later his vision was blocked by the sight of at least three pirates rushing forward to finish him off.

***

Jo-Dal stood at the front of his warriors.  They were formed up in near perfect lines and rows. He was proud of them.  Even though half of them were from Archer’s Gate he still thought of them as his.  Their commander, Spall, was gone, but they accepted him as their leader without question.  Now they stood in military formation facing a ragtag army of pirates that still had them outnumbered.

All of them could see what was happening out on the eastern piers.  Their brothers and sisters were being surrounded and killed and every man and woman in formation badly ached to run to their aid.  Still, their military training held and they ignored their own emotions and looked to their commander for instructions.

The Olvionis were still in two units; the main one was made up of five hundred warriors, and these stood with Jo-Dal directly in front of the pirate army barricades.  There were three hundred yards separating them from the pirate barricades.

The second branch of Olvionis was still guarding the eastern flank.  They had just under three hundred troops and were commanded by Palto.  They were approximately one hundred yards east of Jo-Dal’s party.

All now stood out in the open and in perfect military formations.  The very sight of such a well-trained army was daunting to the pirates.  They recognized the potential abilities of such a force.  They hunkered down behind their barriers expecting them to attack at any moment.

Lampte was sweating even though the breeze from the sea was keeping the temperature comfortable.  He kept checking the ships in the harbor noting how uncomfortably near they were getting to the now-open piers.  The group of outlanders had briefly held them but were now in the process of being exterminated.

Lampte’s main focus was the army that was now displayed in front of him.  He had not had a close-up look at them since the skirmishes had begun.  Now he saw what he believed to be all of them and was comforted by their numbers.  Yes, they were disciplined and yes they were trained, but they just didn’t have the numbers.  The invaders who had captured the eastern piers had been confronted with nearly the same odds and they were in the process of being annihilated.  Lampte expected the same fate for these uniformed outlanders.

Lampte knew that the army had not left the safety of their concealed positions for nothing, they were obviously preparing to attack.  That was the best result that he could imagine. Even he, with his limited military knowledge, knew that attacking fortified positions with inferior forces was tantamount to suicide.  He guessed that their commander had realized that darkness would give Lampte’s people the advantage since they were intimately familiar with the town and could launch numerous attacks on them throughout the night, whittling their numbers down.

Whatever had prompted them to risk an attack he wished they would get on with it.  Then he saw movement in their formation.  A large party marched from the rear ranks and formed up in front of the main body.  Lampte squinted and saw that these fighters were all armed with bows.

“Prepare for arrow attack!” he shouted, the instruction picked up and relayed by his lieutenants.  Lampte smiled now.  He knew the ranges were too long for an effective archery barrage.  Good!  Let them use up all of their arrows.  Their damned archers had already cost him too many fighters.  The sooner they were out of arrows, the better.

***

Jo-Dal watched as the archers formed up in front of the ranks.  Per his previous directions they were doing so as slowly as they could without making their intentions obvious.  What would normally have taken thirty seconds had now stretched on to three minutes, and they were still moving around, shifting positions.

Over at the pirate barricades the fighters were digging in, preparing to dodge a lethal rain of arrows.  He watched as they fought among themselves for possession of old doors, pieces of lumber and other objects which they could use to shield themselves.