Heirs of Empire

“Glad something’s going right,” Sean grunted, and rose cautiously to fire at a Guardsman. The man threw up his arms and sprawled forward, and Sean dropped back beside Folmak as answering fire cracked and whined about his ears.

He rolled on his back to reload the pistol, and his thoughts were grim. The Guard was coming at them only from the west now, but it was still coming. As Lee had proven at Cold Harbor and Petersburg, dug in riflemen could hold against many times their own numbers, but each assault crashed a little closer to success, like waves devouring a beach, and his line was a little thi

He drew the hammer to the half-cocked safety position and primed the pistol while he stared up into the smoke-sick afternoon sky. He could hear the thunder of battle from the north in the rare intervals when the firing here slowed, and he was still tied into Brashan’s arrays. The satellites could see less and less as smoke and the spreading fires blinded their passive sensors, but he was still in touch with Tibold and Harriet, as well. The ex-Guardsman had battered his way halfway to the Place of Martyrs, but at horrible cost. No one could be certain, and he knew people tended to assume the worst while the dying was still happening, but even allowing for that, Harriet estimated Tibold had lost over a sixth of his men. The Angels’ Army was being ground away, and there was nothing he could do about it. Even if the army had tried, it was in too deep to disengage, and he knew Tibold would refuse to so much as make the attempt as long as he, Tamman, or Sandy were still alive.

Which they wouldn’t be for too very much longer, he thought bitterly.

“Sean! Movement to the north!”

He rolled onto his side and rose on an elbow, peering to his right as Tamman’s warning came over the com, but not even enhanced eyes could see anything from here.

“What kind of movement?” he asked, and there was a moment of silence before Tamman replied slowly.

“Du

“Moving back?” Sean looked at Sandy. Her smoke-grimed face was drawn, but she shrugged her own puzzlement. “Are they shifting west, Tam?”

“No way. They’re pulling straight back. Just a sec.” There was another pause as Tamman crawled through the rubble to a better vantage point. “Okay. I can see ’em better now. Sean, the bastards are forming a route column! They’re moving straight towards the Place of Martyrs!”

Sean was about to reply when a junior officer flung himself on his belly behind the rock pile. The young man was breathing hard and filthy from head to toe, but he slapped his breastplate in a sort of abbreviated salute.

“Lord Sean! They’re moving back on the south side.”

“How far back?”

“Their musketeers are still in the buildings, but their pikemen are falling clear back behind them, My Lord.”

Sean stared at him and forced his cringing brain to work. The Guard had to know it was grinding the First away, so why fall back now? It couldn’t be simply to reorganize, not if Tamman was right about the column marching north for the Place of Martyrs. But if not that, then—

“They’re reinforcing against Tibold,” he said softly. Folmak looked at him for a moment, then nodded.

“They must be,” he agreed, and Sean looked at the under-captain.

“How many pikes did they pull off the south side?”

“I’m not certain, My Lord—” the Malagoran began, and Sean shook his head.

“Best guess. How many?”

“At least five thousand.”

“Tam? How many from your side?”

“I make it what’s left of seven or eight thousand pikes. They’ve left musketeers to keep us busy, but I’d guess there’s no more than a thousand pikemen to support them.”

Sean frowned, then switched to Tibold’s com frequency.

“Tibold, they’re pulling men away from us. We’re guessing it at ten to twelve thousand pikes.”

“Away from you?” The ex-Guardsman was hoarse and rasping from hours of bellowing orders, but there was nothing wrong with his brain. “Then they’re sending them here.”

“Agreed. What will that do to you?”

“It won’t be good, Lord Sean,” Tibold said grimly. “My lead brigades are down to battalion strength by now. We’re still moving forward, but it’s by finger spans. If they bring that many fresh men into action—” He broke off, and Sean could almost see his shrug.

“How long for them to get to you?”

“Under these conditions? At least an hour.”

“All right, Tibold. I’ll get back to you.”

“Sean?” He looked up as Sandy said his name, and her eyes bored into his.

“Give me a minute.” He turned to Folmak and pointed to the gaunt, fortress-like main arsenal building which sheltered their wounded.

“How many men do you need to garrison the arsenal?”

“Just the arsenal?” Sean nodded, and the Malagoran rubbed his filthy face with his good hand. “Three hundred to cover all four walls and give me some snipers upstairs.”

“Only three hundred?” Sean pressed, and Folmak smiled grimly.

“We’ve already prepared it for our last stand, Lord Sean, and we’ve got half a dozen of their arlaks on each wall at ground level. I’ve got a couple of hundred wounded who can still shoot, and a hundred more who can still load for men who aren’t hurt, and we’ve got plenty of rifles no one needs anymore. I can hold it with three hundred, My Lord. Not forever, but for a couple of hours, at least.”

“Make it four hundred.”

“Yes, My Lord.” Folmak nodded but never looked away from his commander. “Why, My Lord?” he asked bluntly.

“Because I’m taking the rest of your people on a little trip, Folmak.” Sean bared his teeth at the Malagoran’s expression. “No, I’m not crazy. The Guard wants us, Folmak. They wouldn’t ease up on us if they had any choice, so if they’re pulling men from here to throw at Tibold, they’ve probably already pulled in everyone they can scrape up from anywhere else.”

“And?” Folmak asked repressively.

“And everyone they’ve got left is almost certainly between us and Tibold. If I can break out to the south while they’re all going north, I may just be able to pay a little visit to High Priest Vroxhan in person and, ah, convince him to call this whole thing off.”

“You’re mad, My Lord. High-Captain Tibold would have my guts for tent ropes if I let you try something like that!”

“We’ll all have to be alive for that to happen, and you and I won’t be unless I can at least distract them from reinforcing against Tibold. Think about it, Folmak. If I break out in their rear, headed away from them, they’re bound to turn at least some of their men around to nail me, and we can raise all kinds of hell before they catch up to us. While we’re doing that, Tibold may actually manage to break through.”

“You’re mad,” Folmak repeated. He locked stares with Sean, but it was the ex-miller whose eyes finally fell. “You are mad,” he said sighing, “but you’re also in command. I’ll give you what’s left of the Second Regiment.”

“Thank you.” Sean gripped the Malagoran’s shoulder hard for a moment. “In that case, you’d better go start getting things organized.”

“Which way will you go?”

“We’ll start out to the east. The fires have them disorganized on that side.”

“Very well. I’ll see about getting some guns into position to lay down fire before you go. At least—” the First’s commander summoned a smile “—there’s no wall to block our fire any longer!”

He turned to crawl away, shouting for his surviving messengers, and a small, dirty hand gripped Sean’s elbow.

“He’s right, you’re out of your damned mind!” Sandy hissed. “You’ll never get past their perimeter, and even if you do, you don’t even know where to find Vroxhan in all this!” She waved her other hand blindly at the smoke, and the gesture was taut with anger.