“The Rhodaanis are coming!” Sasha yelled at her men as she cantered along the ridge trail behind their line, weaving through the trees as Ilduuri ranks fought and exchanged places to her right. “The Rhodaanis are coming, hold the line!”
She had no archers now, for there was no room to shoot. To her left, away from the valley, the ridge was level in parts and thickly forested, preventing any archery. Then it climbed, far more steeply than the valley walls. Their foothold upon this ridge was like a thin path upon the lip of a cliff, the enemy below and mountains behind. Any breach along the line would cut off those further along. The line had to hold, or she'd lose the whole formation.
She passed her artillery position, a ridge that ran from the mountain behind. The great contraptions swung and sprang, shooting swarms of bolts or burning hellfire rounds streaking through the sky. That would protect her far-left flank overlooking the Ipshaal, the scene of all previous action. But it was her near-right flank that worried her most.
She reached the bluff at the corner of the valley mouth and turned left. The fighting here was again heavy, and the sea of men below apparently inexhaustible. Flame and smoke roared into the air from hellfire impacts-catapults were poor for firing short range as their abbreviated swings were inaccurate, a terrible risk firing over the heads of friendly forces with hellfire rounds. They were only reliably accurate at long range, meaning this far flank. Ballista fire now fell across the middle and right flank, searing low over the Ilduuri line's heads to scythe through men coming uphill.
Seeing that the line held, she turned, careful to dodge men moving across her path. Coming back down the valley, she could see the Rhodaani Steel advancing. There were great squares of glinting silver, formations that had once terrified feudal armies far smaller than this one. But this army advanced without its artillery, while the feudals, even as she watched, were beginning to fire.
Rounds leaped into the air from down the valley, where artillery had advanced on the far side of the Dhemerhill River. She'd sent Andreyis to tell General Geralin of its position, but evidently he hadn't listened. As many as ten rounds at once soared into the air, trailing thin smoke. The Rhodaanis were packed so tightly together they could not possibly dodge.
She stopped at her artillery position, not even bothering to watch the enemy's rounds landing. The artillery captain came running down to her, shield above his head as he left the protection of a near catapult in the light rain of arrows that nearby archers were directing at his contraptions.
“We're about to lose the ridge!” Sasha yelled. “Pull all your units off the ridge at once, and get them back to Jahnd!”
“If I stop firing now our left flank may fold!” he shouted back above the din of battle.
“We're going to lose it anyway!” Sasha retorted. “Your artillery is more valuable, you've done all you can here-now it's time to leave!”
He nodded and ran back to his men, yelling orders. Sasha turned and spared a look down at the Rhodaani formations. Black smoke rose, and fires spread. It was hard to see the formation clearly, just glints of steel through the smoke. On the wide flanks, Rhodaani cavalry was charging, accompanied by talmaad and Lenay cavalry back for a second charge. It met little opposing cavalry, but gathering now before the Regent's artillery were great rows of pikemen, apparently organised for just that purpose. Their pikes were huge, and their lines bristled like a porcupine. Cavalry hated that. It seemed the Regent had put some thought into how to protect his artillery from cavalry at least.
Andreyis came racing back from his latest mission, and Sasha sent him on a new one. “Tell Kessligh we're pulling off the ridge! We'll protect the artillery and try to make a new line for them to pass, but if we stay here we'll lose everything.”
He left. Yasmyn had been sent to carry another officer's message, and she had no idea where Daish was. Sasha turned and galloped up the line once more, to where her left flank was about to find itself without artillery cover.
She'd just reached the bluff when yells and running men alerted her that the line behind her had been breached. She spun her horse and saw a swarm of men-at-arms pushing through the Ilduuris and across the path she'd just ridden. Rear ranks were peeling off the adjoining lines to attack them, but as they did so, a second portion of newly thinned line also collapsed. The line now dissolved into a mass of fighting, flailing men with no semblance of order. The chaos extended a hundred paces across, and was growing wider. She, and everyone on this side, was now trapped.
An officer ran to her with wild-eyed desperation, shouting questions she could barely hear. She did not bother yelling back, but instead gestured with her hands-a firm line to hold along the ridge so they did not get cut off again, and this new front upon the ridge itself should fall back past the bluff and contract upon itself to make a pocket. She did it as calmly as she could, despite the fighting barely twenty paces from her side, and the officer seemed to absorb that calm, take deep breaths, then turned to run back and yell orders.
Sasha spun and galloped about the corner and onto the Ipshaal front. Soon she was met by Captain Idraalgen, senior officer on this flank.
“We're cut off, the middle just folded!” she yelled at him, dismounting from her horse. “We're about three thousand stuck on this side, and our artillery is retreating!”
Idraalgen did not look very surprised. “Do we attack?” he asked cheerfully.
Sasha laughed. “Yes, but backwards! Those trails up the mountains, can we use them?”
“Any trail is enough for Ilduuri,” he replied. “We'll contract into a tight pocket and funnel men up the trails from behind. They can chase us if they wish, but the trails are narrow-one Ilduuri can stop a whole army if positioned well.”
“Then that's the plan!” Sasha shouted, and slapped him on the shoulder. But she couldn't take her horse. Probably she should have had the stallion killed so that the Regent would not gain another mount, but she had a man take him off beyond the left flank and tie him to a tree. Killing horses was bad luck, and she was superstitious enough to think that a worse threat to this battle than her enemies gaining one more steed.
With her shield on one arm, Sasha took position by one of the trails where it began to climb through steep rocks and precarious trees, shouting for the rear ranks to make an orderly ascent. They came running past her, slinging shields to their backs and swords into their scabbards, then onto the trail at speed. After long fighting, battered, sweaty, and bloody, they ran up the trail, climbing fast in the knowledge that in single file, one slow man condemned every man behind.
Soon the extended right flank of their pocket was falling back from the bluff, amidst triumphant cries and yells from the Regent's men. Directly before her she could hear Ilduuris yelling back, a few in Saalsi, words to the effect that all the piled corpses at their feet did not look like much of a victory.
The pocket drew closer, armoured flanks closing in on all sides, and arrows began to fly more thickly as the Regent's men identified the source of the trail above. Sasha found shelter behind a tree trunk, her shield raised, and figured her men were down from three thousand to just a few hundred. Now it became tricky.
A sergeant alerted her to the endgame, racing from the line now only ten paces away, waving frantically at her to run. Sasha slung her shield and ran straight up the path. Arrows struck about her, and she realised the other advantage to having the shield on the back as Ilduuris wore it while climbing. She'd been in the saddle rather than fighting on foot, so her legs were relatively fresh, yet still it hurt. Fifty paces up she paused where Ilduuri archers had halted to sit just off the path, with an increasingly sheer drop below, and expend their remaining arrows on the men who now closed about the remaining Ilduuri.