“I thought you died, Sergeant,” said someone not far away.
“In your dreams, Corporal,” said the indefatigable Sergeant Nash. “I was not given permission to die. Until I am, I will be here with your sorry ass. Now, get up!”
The sergeant continued until he got to where Will was rolling up his bedding. “Cartwright!”
“Yes, Sergeant!” said Will, jumping to his feet.
Nash held out a strip of linen that had been dyed black. “Since Corporal Taylor didn’t make it back, you will be the new acting corporal for Sixth Squad.”
Will started to protest, but after a second’s thought he realized Sixth Squad now consisted solely of himself, Tiny, and Dave. He shrugged into his armor and Tiny helped him tie the black ribbon around the upper part of his left arm.
The sergeant continued, “Since Fifth Squad only has two men left, they’ll be joining you in Sixth.” Nash looked at the two men in question. “Mayhew, Wilkinson, did you hear that?”
“Yes, Sergeant!”
Will looked at the two men, then at Dave and Tiny. He felt awkward. What was he supposed to say? “Get your things together,” he told them.
Will had thought that Stanton might have them retreat to the south. The mountainous terrain there would offer them a better defensive position, or maybe even a place to hide. But as he saw the supply and baggage wagons leaving, he realized why that hadn’t been an option. They had slightly fewer than four hundred soldiers left, and only half of those were in any condition to fight.
They simply couldn’t hide without abandoning the supply wagons and the wounded. That left them only one practical option. Retreating to Branscombe. With the men they had, the town wouldn’t be defensible, but at least they could warn the inhabitants. The entire town might have to be abandoned, and that was their best-case scenario. There was still the significant threat that the Patriarch’s forces would catch them as they withdrew.
Will found himself constantly looking over his shoulder as they marched. Sergeant Nash noticed his backward glances and slowed his pace until he was abreast of Sixth Squad. “Worried?” he asked.
“Yes, Sergeant.”
“You should be. Our best hope is that they spend a day cleaning up the mess we left at the top of the pass, but they have enough men to spare that they could send some after us and still leave plenty behind to bury the dead,” said the sergeant.
Some of the men farther ahead were looking back as well, and Will saw them staring at him. They looked away when he met their eyes, but he heard them muttering. With the noise of so many men on the march, he couldn’t make out their conversation, but one word came to his ears repeatedly, ‘warlock.’
There wasn’t anything he could do about it, so he ignored them and focused on Sergeant Nash. “Isn’t there anything we can do, Sergeant?” he asked.
“Yeah,” said Nash. “March faster. We’ve done all we can. All the combat-ready soldiers are in the rear. If we see them coming up behind us, we’ll have to turn and fight a delaying action.”
Nash didn’t say it, but Will could see in the old veteran’s eyes just how he thought that would turn out. A tiny voice inside told him, You don’t have to die with them. Take off the armor and run. They’d never catch you, and after night falls, you could keep running.
Shut up, he told his inner coward.
He marched on, but around midday their worst fears came true. A shout went up as someone saw the glint of sunlight on steel helmets behind them. Sir Kyle’s voice rang out, “Company B, halt!” Similar commands came from the other captains and the small contingent of able-bodied soldiers came to a stop.
Dave glanced over at him anxiously. “We’re all going to die. You know that, right?”
“Shut up,” said Will.
“Yeah, I know. I hate myself sometimes,” said the ex-thief. “If it’s any comfort, the only reason I’m still here is you and the big guy, but if the two of you die before me, I’m going to run my scrawny ass off.”
“That’s all right,” said Tiny. “I’m sure you’ll bite it first.”
More commands went out, and the men formed a shield wall. Their numbers were low, so it was only two ranks deep. They faced the oncoming Darrowans, and the words Will dreaded found his ears. “Forward march!” As one, the Terabinians began to march toward their end.
As had happened before, once the two armies were within fifty yards, a large mass of young men darted through the ranks of the Darrowan army and hurled spears at them. “Why don’t we have any skirmishers?” complained Dave as they continued onward.
“Because most of us are conscripts,” said Tiny. “They didn’t have time to form any special units.” Several men along the line screamed as the spears hit them. Then the enemy skirmishers withdrew, and a minute later, the two shield walls came together.
Fear and adrenaline had Will’s heart racing, but his mind had found somewhere else to be. It was blank, empty of anything but the clarity of a man trying his best not to die. Without consciously deciding, he cast the source-link spell, and this time he caught two men simultaneously. He didn’t have time to be amazed at his success, though. As soon as he had sent enough turyn into them to cause them to begin vomiting, he released the spell and caught two more. He didn’t even bother trying to use his spear; Tiny and Dave were doing their best to take advantage of the holes that formed in the Darrowan line.
Thanks to his efforts, the center of the enemy line quickly gave way, but the Darrowan force was considerably larger than their own, and it was wrapping around their flanks. They pressed forward, and Will could see several reserve companies waiting to the rear of the shield wall they had just breached. They were doomed.
Horns sounded behind him, but he didn’t have time to spare looking back. Will was determined to take as many of the enemy with him as he could before he died. Something hard knocked Dave back, and Will had the wind knocked out of him as something hard slammed into his stomach. He only saw the spear as it pulled back, but there was no blood on the point. Already exhausted, Will drained as much turyn from his attacker as he could and used the power to stay on his feet.
Then the Darrowans began to back away, and some of the Terabinians around him started cheering. Sergeant Nash yelled for the advance to halt, and their line firmed up. With the enemy pulling back, Will was finally free to look back, and for the first time that day he felt a surge of hope.
A huge army was advancing from their rear, and they bore the banner of Terabinia, a silver falcon against a blue background. Will saw a second banner beside it, quartered into red and black sections with gold oak leaves overlaying them. He wondered which lord the other banner belonged to.
The remnants of Lord Fulstrom’s force waited, and soon the new arrivals passed by them and formed a new defensive line. Will counted the companies as they passed and tried to estimate their numbers. His best estimate was somewhere near two thousand soldiers. It was five times the size of the remnants of Fulstrom’s army, but nowhere near large enough to retake the pass. Is that all of them? he wondered.
The Patriarch had at least three times that many that Will had seen, and there were potentially many more still in Barrowden.
The commanders of the new and old forces met, and soon Company B was on the march again, continuing their retreat to Branscombe since they were in no shape to stay on the field. It wasn’t long before Dave resumed his usual commentary. “Look! They’ve got skirmishers—and archers. Aren’t they fucking fancy? Cavalry too!”