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The impact of the horses running at full speed clouting into a tangled pile of broken men and animals blocking the main road was ghastly. Flesh pounded against flesh and bones snapped. Horses screamed in pain. So powerful was the force of the impact that it broke the spike wall and blew a hole through the bottleneck of carcasses. Great warhorses, some with their face armor and some without, spilled through the gap, slipping and sliding on the blood and gore of slain comrades and other animals. In the treacherous footing, some of the horses and riders fell. Others pouring through the gap at a full gallop didn’t have anywhere else to go and trampled them.
Men bristling with spears rushed out of alleyways to the sides and into the path of the charging cavalry to close the breach in the line. The horses, already in shock from the carnage and terrible destruction of so many of their kind, now faced rank upon rank of men running in at them, yelling battle cries, thrusting spears into their sides. The animals squealed with horrific, desperate screams as they were mercilessly gored. The fallen animals tripped up those still running in an attempt to escape. The evening air sounded as if it were ripping as archers rained down a hail of arrows on cavalrymen struggling to escape the carnage.
Nicci doubted that these Imperial Order troops would have deliberately attacked into the city, using the cavalry in such a fashion, if they had not been goaded into it. These kind of horses were not meant for this kind of fighting. They simply couldn’t maneuver properly in the close quarters and the cavalrymen couldn’t effectively cut down their opposition. To make matters more difficult for them, the defenders had too many places to hide for a cavalry charge to be truly effective. The purpose of the cavalry would have been to swiftly crush any organized resistance out in the open hoping to stop the Order before they reached the city, and then to run down anyone who tried to escape the city after the troops were sent in. Had the commanders been properly in control of the situation and their men, Nicci doubted they would have allowed such a crazy cavalry charge into the confines of a city. Nicci, of course, had known all that when she went to whack the hornets’ nest.
The folly of a cavalry attack into a city was becoming all too apparent. The killing was as swift as it was brutal. The gruesome sight of so many horses and men torn open seemed somehow unreal. The stench of blood was gagging.
When she saw a column of the enemy turn down an alleyway to make an escape, Nicci cast her Han outward, using a concentrated spike of force to snap the bones of the lead horse. As the animal’s legs folded under it the horses following crashed into it at full speed, breaking their legs as the first horse rolled under them before they were able to leap up out of the way. A few of the horses following behind, seeing what was happening and having more time to react, were able to jump clear. Nicci saw the men at the far end of the narrow alleyway close off their escape route.
Nicci cut around the corner to reach the main bottleneck and help prevent any Imperial Order cavalry from escaping the trap. As she rounded the final building, she encountered a knot of cavalry as they broke through the lines of men with spears. Nicci sent a molten ball of flame howling toward the enemy. It cleared the heads of the defenders and hit the street, splashing liquid fire across the horses’ flanks. The animals, their hides ablaze, reared up, allowing the flames to roll up onto the men on their backs.
Nicci raced around tightly packed buildings to come up behind the tail end of the center trap that had ensnared a large number of the enemy. The men of the city had already set upon them. For once, the cavalrymen were outnumbered, disorganized, and unable to break free of the onslaught. Men fighting for their freedom had a burning determination that the soldiers had not expected to encounter. Their tactics of intimidation and simple slaughter had fallen apart.
In the fading light of dusk, Nicci spotted Victor swinging a heavy mace at any Imperial Order head he could find. She urged Sa’din through the slaughter.
“Victor!”
The man looked up with a murderous scowl. “What!” he cried out over the din of the battle, blood dripping from the steel blades of his weapon.
Nicci stepped her horse closer. “The soldiers are coming right behind the cavalry. They will be the real test. We don’t dare let them change their mind about attacking now. Just in case they are having any second thoughts, I’m going to go give them something irresistible to chase into the city.”
Victor flashed her a grim grin. “Good. We will be ready for them.”
Once the army poured into Altur’Rang, there was no way they would be able to stay together. They would split up to move down different streets. Once they did that, each of those groups could be further divided by the defenders. As each group fled or charged, they would face hidden archers and groups of men with spears, to say nothing of the numerous traps.
Altur’Rang was huge. As darkness took the city, many of the invaders would become disoriented and lost. Because of the narrow warren of streets they wouldn’t be able to stay together to present a coordinated attack. They would not be allowed to go where they wished, as they wished, attacking helpless people; they would be relentlessly pursued and harried. Each group would get smaller all the time, both because they would be whittled down while under constant attack, and because some of their men would try other routes to find a way to safety. Nicci had made sure that there was no place of safety in the city.
“There is blood all down the front of you.” Victor called up to her. “Are you all right?”
“I got clumsy and fell off my horse. I’m fine. This must end tonight,” she reminded Victor.
“In a hurry to go after Richard?”
She smiled but didn’t answer his question. “I’d better go whack the hornets’ nest. I will bring them on my heels.”
He nodded. “We’re ready.”
When she spotted three soldiers in the distance trying to make an escape without their horses, Nicci paused to cast a shimmering spell down a narrow twisting street. With three rapid thuds, the lance of power slammed through flesh and bone to drop the three.
“And Victor,” she said turning back to the man, “there’s one last thing.”
“What would that be?”
“No one gets away alive. No one.”
With the sounds of battle raging behind him, he appraised her eyes for a moment. “I understand. Ishaq will be waiting for you; try to get the hornet’s nest there as quickly as you can.”
Nicci, checking the reins to hold Sa’din in place, nodded. “I will bring the soldiers right down—”
She turned to the sudden whoosh of flame. Great gouts of fire flared up to the east. She knew that it could mean only one thing.
Victor cursed and climbed up to stand on the carcass of a dead warhorse as he craned his neck, trying to get a view over the rooftops at the thick smoke billowing up into the darkening sky.
He cast a suspicious scowl at Nicci. “You failed to get Kronos?”
“I got Kronos,” she growled through gritted teeth, “and another wizard. It would appear that they have another gifted with them. I guess they came prepared.” Nicci laid the reins over, turning Sa’din toward the distant sounds of screams. “But they didn’t come prepared for Death’s Mistress.”
Chapter 29
“What do you think it could mean?” Berdine asked.
Verna glanced over at the Mord-Sith’s blue eyes. “Ann didn’t say.”
The library was dead quiet but for the soft hiss of oil lamps. What with the row upon row of aisles along with the woodwork and shelves of dark walnut, the lamps and candles did little to illuminate the vast inner sanctuary. Had Verna lit all of the reflector lamps lining the walls and hung on the end caps of shelves, the place could have been made to be considerably brighter but, for their purpose, she didn’t think it necessary.
In a way, Verna felt that if they were to light too many lamps, pull out too many ancient volumes, disturb the sanctum to a large degree, it might wake the ghosts of all the Master Rahls who haunted the place.
