| |
The holding of Hardinian lived in song and story for long after the Hygerian war was over. The Hygerians almost certainly realized both the possible effect on the Asbalnians if the city fell, and the possible result to themselves if the city held until Phedron could return. They had no illusions about having defeated Phedron for good and all, for they had seen Asbalnian amies leap up from places where the land had been thought to be under complete control, and they had seen those same armies move through the land almost as though they were covered by spells of invisibility.
-The Hygerian war
Randell of Avantir
For six days after, the Hygerians assaulted the walls at least once a day. The Hygerian catapults proved to be of shorter range than the Asbalnian ones, and the Asbalnians knocked two of the Hygerian catapults to pieces. However, the continual firing had loosened the supports under the wall-platform of one of the engines, causing it to fall to the courtyard below, seriously damaging the catapult, injuring one man and killing another.
Under the skilled direction of certain of the Old One’s colleagues, the wall on both sides of the breach was specially braced, so the heavier Hygerian catapults achieved little there. By now, however, the Dark ones had set up a series of log palisades within closer range of the walls, behind which their few archers took shelter, along with the lighter catapults.
From behind these shelters, the Hygerians would issue, while the archers shot over their heads. The first of them would be a swarm of light-armed men with a bundle of javelins and a shield. These would clash up and cast their missiles up at the men on the wall, while the heavily armed men with ladders and ropes came up behind.
After the sixth day, they ceased to be so ready to storm the city and were more content with shooting into it with catapults and archers. They extended their wooden palisades, angling them continually forward in a zig-zag fashion, so the storming-parties should not have so far to go under the Asbalnian missiles.
While their force was already large, continual parties of Hygerians rode in and encamped themselves around the city, while by this time the Asbalnians had recruited as many of the townspeople as they reasonably could.
On that sixth night, the Hygerians attempted a night attack. They came fearfully close to success, so much so that by morning the defenders were still fighting to clear them out of a section of the city which they had fortified when they had been cut off from reinforcements. It had been a terrible night, with men too often finding themselves in mortal combat with their comrades.
More by good fortune than by their skill, though with some flashes of insight on Rorick’s part which seemed almost magical to the men, they prevented the second groups from coming in to reinforce the first party which had come over the walls in near silence. Though they remained carefully on their guard every night from then on, the Hygerians never attempted another night attack; quite possibly they felt the risk of disaster because of inability to distinguish friend from foe was not worth the gain.
When the situation was restored, save for those Hygerians still trapped inside, Rorick had a hurried consultation with Conel, and they sent young Dolon out to find Phedron.
Though the final casualty returns were not yet in, it seemed likely the Prince’s army was now just over twelve hundred, and they could not hold out much longer. Rorick was with Dolon just before he went out over the breach.
“Tell him we must be relieved soon, or we are dead. In three days, expect them to realize our situation, and when they do, they will press harder. Go now, and may the High Ones go with you.”
Dolon slipped out silently and was gone in the darkness. Rorick stood there for some time, listening to the far-off sounds of the Hygerian camp, without much hope he could distinguish any distinct sound if Dolon should be caught, but wishing to make himself as sure as possible. Conel was suddenly at his side. “If they catch him, they will certainly let us know. They would prefer the immediate disappointment to the growing feeling that something has gone wrong.”
“My feelings as well. But they might decide not to let us know, lest we send out another messenger in his place who might be more successful.”
Conel shrugged. “Well, I fear we can count the days of our future here in Hardinian now, and they are few. Eventually, they will have extended their siege-wall so close to the city that they will be able to attack almost unhindered.”
“Yes, I fear so. Yet we may still be able to hinder them, by one means or another. Come, let us rest while we may.”
In two days’ time, the situation became desperate. The Hygerians had been building for some time, and had at last repaired the ram, which Rorick had partially burned on the first night. Because of its great weight, it required many men and beasts to move it, so they brought it up behind their shields. They found the sharp corners which they had put in the palisades made it impossible to turn the unwieldy bulk of the great engine, so they were forced to remove great sections of the palisade.
This delayed them, and they had to leave the ram halfway down the siege-walls over one night, while they rearranged all the corners to allow for it. They had lost somewhat heavily at the previous point, which was only within extreme arrow-range, but was within good range for the catapult nearest it, and so did not wish to make the extra required effort that night. Some said later that it was the unaccustomed work, added to the continual vexation by the missiles, which made it impossible for their officers to drive them to the attack by any means at all.
That night, Rorick led a sortie against the siege-wall, but it was guarded well enough they could not achieve anything significant. There were more consultations between Rorick and Conel, and shortly the catapults shot once more. This time they were launching jars instead of stones, jars which burst against the palisade to scatter oil across it.
Before long, it was drenched with oil, and the catapults then launched burning darts in the same area. The palisades were made of green wood, thus not too likely to burn themselves, but when the oil scattered over that particular section of the siege-wall had burned and the wood suffered as well.
There had been little hope of destroying the wall, or any substantial portion of it, but the heat of the fire prevented the Hygerians from approaching it, which delayed them in bringing up the ram.
Then too, even before the fire died down appreciably, the catapults were launching stones at that part. At the same time, the main gate opened so that the great catapult which had broken the breach in Hardinian’s walls began shooting its massive missiles at the palisade. The burning section finally broke, its posts weakened by the fire, and the great catapult sent two large rocks at the ram before the defenders of the city felt it necessary to close the gates.
Despite the vexatious missiles coming from the walls, the Hygerians hauled the past the cap in the palisade. At last, having reached the limits of the siege-wall, they rested again. Then came another attack, an attack aimed principally at the breach, but with diversions towards other areas of the walls.
As the dark-cloaked mob surged forward, Rorick ran to the catapult nearest the front gate. “This is to divert our attention while they bring the ram up to the gate! Wait for them!”
And so it proved. Yet the assaults were aimed at the area of the catapult, and pressed so thoroughly that the catapult crews drew swords to defend themselves, and only managed two shots at those hauling the ram.
A few more braces were added to the already reinforced gate, and as the first assault fell back to the palisades, the Hygerians pushed the great engine into position in front of the gate, while others began hastily setting up new palisades to protect those Who were to operate it. A new line of palisades was also erected to allow their archers a place to shoot from.
The sound of the ram booming against the gate was soon heard throughout the city. Asbaln’s men waited until it should give way at last.
It took some time before it fell. In fact, it held until mid-morning on the second day of the ram’s placing. As it finally broke and fell, a horde of Hygerians behind the original siege wall offered shouts of triumph. They attacked the gate, the breach, and certain sections of the wall.
But the Asbalnians had not been idle. Inside the gate was a semicircular breastwork, with a light catapult behind it, aimed at the gate. Archers stood all around it, with parties of swordsmen standing just a little back from it to allow the bowmen full room for their occupation.
The top of the rubble in the breach had been smoothed, and a breastwork set up there as well, with archers behind it, and spear-men and swordsmen to support them. The Hygerians found themselves with a task only slightly easier than before the cate had gone down.
But they were determined, and the fact the gate had gone down had heartened them, and it seemed hours before they withdrew. They had done better on the walls, two hundred of them actually making their way over the walls, and forcing on too far, to find themselves cut off from any hope of reinforcements. While the noise of that fight was still ringing over one pact of the city, the city’s defenders made further preparations.
Men, mostly those of the wounded who could yet walk, were going round the city collecting what arrows and javelins they could find to augment the supplies available on the walls. A hasty barricade was thrown up across the gateway, and manned first archers, with swordsmen behind them. breastwork behind the gate-way was also manned, and they prepared to fight.
The Hygerians came once more that day, and were driven back again, though not easily. The men of Asbaln had an uneasy night, but the Hygerians had no intention of risking a night attack. In the morning, though, they came again.
The breastwork at the gate was far enough in being beyond the reach of the Hygerian ram, so they launched an assault on it with only some help from their catapults. The barricade, being hastily constructed, did not stand well against this treatment, but it protected the men behind it to some degree.
When the dark-clad men came to close quarters, the Asbalnians met them with a grim ferocity. Conel directed the fighting at the gate. Rorick supervised the walls; there was no more pretence at unconcern, for every man knew their situation was desperate.
The Hygerians knew it too and were a shade too confident in their first attack. They drove the Asbalnians back from the barricade but were then subjected to arrows and javelins in a deadly crossfire from the circular defence within. At the breach, which they had some time ago discovered was not the easy entrance it as looked to be, their attack was only enough to ensure that the defenders must maintain their full alertness there as well, keeping several hundred men occupied.
Again they withdrew, but it was clear they would come again and again, and soon it would no longer be possible for the defenders to prevent them from gaining a foothold in the city, and that would be the beginning of the end.
Rorick, leaning on the Sword and watching as the men of Asbaln made preparations for the next attack, realized that Hardinian must fall, and with it, it seemed, the hopes of Asbaln. Yet perhaps... He went down off the wall to find Conel.
“Milord, you must escape.”
“And desert the war-host? I cannot, you know that, Rorick.”
“Milord, if I die, if Artir dies, if Phedron dies, then another commander may take our place. But you are the last of the Royal Line of Asbaln, and if you die, the country dies.”
Conel looked down at his feet, then back at Rorick. “As always, Rorick, you speak the truth, though I like it not. Let us wait until dark, then, and make a sudden attack. We may drive right through them, then split into small bands and mere for the hills, each man for himself. Will that satisfy you?”
“It must be so. Clearly the best time for such a sally is after dark, and clearly our best hope for any to escape is to send out the whole of the host. Tell the men we must hold only until dark; it will give them something to fight for, to know that the length of the struggle is limited.”
The alarm sounded, and Rorick went back to the wall. Halfway up the stair, he turned and saluted the Prince.
“Asbaln’s men were stubborn ever.”
“And Asbaln’s Kings more stubborn still.”
Now came the war-shouts and whistling arrows, the ladders thumping against the wall, grappling hooks grating on stone. Then the ring of steel on steel. Throughout the clanging, shouting din, Rorick strode with the Sword in his hand.
“Hold firm, lads, hold fast, hold hard. Only until dark, then we need hold no more. Stand, now, stand for the sun goes down; hold them back until nightfall. Have courage, men, for the sun is falling, and still we stand. Behold, the sun goes to rest, and yet we hold firm.”
The barricade at the gate held firm, though the Hygerians piled their dead before it with reckless abandon. When Rorick once looked to the breach, he saw the defenders there were growing fewer, while the dark tide of attackers washed over them. Around the walls he strode, and when he next looked, the breastwork had fallen.
Even as he watched, a small band of Icarians loosed lighted arrows toward the dark mass. Suddenly, at various points, sparks of light appeared, small bright buds which soon blossomed orange. The wood of the breastwork had been soaked with oil in several places, and the wood was dry enough in any case. In the winking of an eye, the whole of the breach was filled with flames which trapped those already inside and prevented those outside from reinforcing them.
Soon, Rorick was called back to his own task of maintaining the defence of the walls. He was in the midst of leading a counter-attack at a band of about thirty, which had found footing on the wall, when he was dimly aware of Hygerian war-horns calling insistently. Then, almost suddenly, there was not a live Hygerian within reach.
Leaning on the Sword and breathing heavily, Rorick looked out across the valley, conscious of the swelling murmur around him, and saw an army coming out of the brush. Above their heads, the Red Dragon of Asbaln moved sinuously in the wind.
The first group of infantry had come out, moving rapidly into formation, with five hundred cavalry taking position on the flanks, and they moved forward even as the rest of the infantry were forming behind them.
Commanding the force was a big man on a gigantic horse, his helmet decorated with the wings of a white mountain eagle; suddenly men in the city were shouting “Phedron! Phedron Doubleaxe!”
Now the cavalry was well in motion, and the manner of their riding, if such evidence were needed, showed them to be highlanders of the north. The first group of infantry, which proved to be the smaller, moved forward at a rapid pace, maintaining its formation, while the second group, directly under Phedron, moved a little slower.
It could be seen now that the Hygerians had not been taken completely unawares by the advance of Phedron, for there were groups formed and ready to meet him, swift bands of cavalry riding in to harass them with javelins and ride away, while infantry were falling into ranks. Because they were somewhat spread round the city, and they had been very much involved in their assault on the city when the word had reached them, it was taking them a little time to form their front. That they were not immediately crushed was due mostly to the fact that Phedron’s host had required some time to move out of the brush. Even so, it was not long before bands of Hygerian infantry were circling the flanks and rear of the foremost infantry force, while the cavalry, having crushed several formations of infantry, were forced to fight a melee battle with a numerically superior of Hygerian horsemen. At this point, two things happened; firstly, the men in the city came to their senses and prepared to go out to their comrades, and secondly, the bulk of Phedron’s infantry, the force coming up behind under his personal command, bolted forward like hounds unleashed in the sight of their quarry.
Their formation became ragged. In some places, their lines disappeared in a surging mass of men, but they fell on the bands of barbarian infantry and annihilated them.
It took a little time for the men in the city to come out, for they had blocked the gate very well, but come out they did. The enemy, seeing themselves as too scattered to fight against both forces, withdrew along the road leading to the City of Coerl.
The men of Asbaln pursued them no further than to send them on their way, for the men of the West were protected in their retreat by a rear-guard, dour men, grim-faced and bitter-handed.
Afterward, Phedron rode into the city to where Conel sat beside the date, on the remnants of the hastily dismantled breast-work receiving reports from his captains. The Prince, who had suffered several minor cuts in the past few days while defending the city, had gained a few more wounds today, all of them now bandaged. Clearly weary, he still greeted Phedron with warmth. The Northerner was not himself unscathed, for the left side of his long yellow beard was red from a wound at the rim of his helmet while his left arm was laid open from wrist to elbow. The great double axe was still in his right hand, but he had cast his shield aside earlier when it had been battered until it was unserviceable. “Milord King, I bring you an army. I regret my tardiness, but there was little help for it.”
“But what matters, Phedron my friend, is that you did come in time. And I note your host is somewhat larger than previously. How did you manage this?”
Phedron shrugged. “It was clear we had need of numbers, so I set to recruiting. We went to each farm and holding with the words, ‘Let one man in three come with us, lest the Hygerians burn the steading.’ When that failed us, we said, ‘One man in three, or we burn the steading.’ though we smiled as we said it, none forced us to light torches.”
“Will that not add to my difficulties after the war?”
Phedron chuckled, “In the hills, we have a saying: ‘two things are not to be criticized; a mother’s new baby, and a victorious King.’ When all is over, remit a few taxes; they will hail you as greater than Conel the Wild.
“But, to continue, I did not wish to trust them, the new men, to hold to their ranks as the veterans would, for we could not give them the training we would have wished, but set some veterans among them and kept them behind the trained men. I fear my captains are hoarse from keeping them in line, but they did right well out here when I slipped the leash. And they will do well enough when the time comes to fight again, now that they have had their first taste.
“And, without a doubt, they are now the bravest of veteran warriors in their own minds, having seen the enemy flee before them. Ah well, think we fight one more battle. They will feel that they must defeat us; Hygeria is in turmoil, and losing faith in King Razak. That will be the final trial.”
Phedron’s men took over all the defence of Hardinian, as well as patrolling and recruiting. The recovery of the larger cities, Orden, Avantir, and Hardinian, had supplied enough for the pay-chest of the army, with some over. By the best of luck, men loyal to the Prince had been at the discovery of the largest hoards of Hygerian loot, so a good number of these went to the war-chest. Recruiting was made somewhat easier, knowing that men could count on being paid.
They now had about forty-five hundred men. They had about seven hundred and fifty cavalry, two hundred Icarian archers, one hundred fifty of the Guardian’s Warriors, and the remainder ordinary infantry, most with sword, shield, and armour, though some still went to battle bearing a bundle of javelins.
They discovered as well, how it was that the Hygerians had more men between the Relyn and Hardinian than had been originally thought. It appeared that Razak had used all his authority and whatever powers of persuasion he possessed to convince the Hygerians he could indeed subdue the Asbalnians, providing he was given the troops to do so. They had furnished the troops, though not gladly, and when Phedron had been forced to withdraw from the crossing of the Relyn, it seemed Razak could fulfil his promise.
With this, and with the line’s force being shut up in Hardinian, certain Hygerian lords volunteered forces which were not asked for, seeing the possibilities for aggrandizement in a reconquest of Asbaln.
“But we have spoiled all that,” said Artir to the council.
“I wish it were so easy,” said Conel.
Rorick nodded. “They did not suffer exceptional losses when Phedron arrived. They realized soon enough that they were not in a position for a proper battle, and withdrew, preserving the greater part of their force.”
“And Razer can tell his council that they have shown, at the crossing of the Relyn, that they can match us. It is not over yet.”
Phedron stroked his beard as he spoke. “But I think we will have as much time as we need to complete the training of our men before we fight again.”