Breaking an Empire by James Tallett Page B

catch Rhocas after his last effort, for the young man had fainted to the ground. Now, the mages rode amongst the supply wagons, tended by the cutters, ashen-faced and shivering, their bodies expended. Rhyfelwyr thought some might not make the dusk, their bodies so shattered they would fall into the sleep from which none woke.
    Now the soldiers of Bhreac Veryan had to fight their way through the bulk of the Lianese army, and that would be a trial the likes of which they had not faced. The Lianese had been able to conjure thousands of troops from thin air, although the sergeant and his squad suspected the numbers had been inflated with sailors and farmers. And scouts had reported the presence of a new type of soldier: Lianese heavy infantry covered from head to foot in armour and carrying large shields and flails.
    The officers of Glanhaol Fflamboethi had not given up hope of avoiding the battle, and so the column was angled towards the eastern coast, in the hopes they could slip around the ponderous Lianese forces. Hours passed, until a cry carried from the scouts on the western side of the Veryan army. They had been spotted by a scout from Niam Liad. Thus warned, the officers of Glanhaol Fflamboethi hunted for a location to make a stand, and found one in a small hill that gave a good view of the surrounding countryside.
    Officers travelled amongst the men, positioning squads in various ways, forming a ring about the crest of the hill. The soldiers dug with a will, forming a shallow trench five feet in front of their lines, mounding up the extracted dirt into a small wall. It would provide some protection against the arrows and javelins of the Lianese forces, and dent the momentum of their charge. Likewise, the wagons were drawn into a circle at the top of the hill, where they would be the last fall back. Though if the fighting reached the wagons, the battle was lost for Bhreac Veryan.
    Rhyfelwyr and his squad were placed to face westward, the direction from which the main thrust of Lianese soldiers would come. And come they did, in a wave that spread across the horizon and made the numbers of the Veryan soldiers seem paltry and few. But that wave gave the Veryan soldiers hope, for the soldiers on the wings carried little in the way of weapons or armour, and some seemed to have nothing more than daggers, clubs or sickles. The morale of those troops would be low, and they would break easily. If only a few firemages were available to cause that break. Locsyn returned from where he had gone to check on Rhocas, and shook his head. None of the mages were awake, and most had the ashen face and shallow breath of a man on death’s doorstep.
    Had the Veryan soldiers more time, they could have turned the hill into a killing ground, with strong fortifications and a field of caltrops scattered before the trenches. With the Lianese soldiers approaching, all the Veryans could do was finish the trench, and position themselves in a deep shield wall surrounding the summit.
    ***
    It was late in the afternoon when the Lianese reached the foot of the hill. There they paused, letting the wings circle round until the hill was engulfed in troops. The eastern side of the hill faced ill-armed conscripts, and a thin screen of skirmishers, while the western flank looked upon the heavy infantry of Niam Liad, each swathed in glistening layers of metal and wood. With just a glance Gwyth could tell the armour would take many a direct blow, and so he told his comrades to go for the joins, where it would be weakest. Rhyfelwyr and the others nodded; it was likewise with the insectoid Veryan suits.
    Both armies waited in silence, until the call sounded within the Lianese lines.
    Rhyfelwyr thought for a moment, then shouted. “Tip the heavies into the trench! They won’t get up!” Indeed, it looked as if the armour weighed enough that would be the case. As the front line of the Lianese soldiers moved up the hill, the skirmishers released javelins and arrows.