Chapter 85 — Three Knights

Chapter 85: Chapter 85 — Three Knights

Chapter 85 — Three Knights

Walter drew a shallow breath and planted his spear beside Ivo. The Urak swept his axe between them. Walter caught the haft, and Christopher cut toward the hand gripping it.

Ivo stayed just outside the axe’s reach, watching the opening.

He watched the Urak’s free side and attacked whenever the Orc committed to Walter or Ivo. His father’s sword could not cut through the thickest plates, but it forced the Urak to guard his neck and hands.

The three of them gave the Orc no clean target.

The Urak changed his grip and shortened his swings, so Walter could no longer turn them by striking the end of the haft; Ivo stopped trying to reach the injured leg and attacked the hands instead.

Christopher watched their feet — Walter moved first, Ivo moved after him — and he had to fit himself into the space they left without forcing either Knight to protect him.

He failed once.

Walter shoved him aside before the axe struck, the blade cutting through the place Christopher had occupied and removing a section of stone from the battlement.

"Watch his hips," Walter said.

Christopher did. The shoulders lied when the Urak changed direction, but the hips moved before the strike.

He avoided the next swing by less than a handspan while Ivo used the opening to cut the Urak’s forearm and Walter attacked the knee again; the Orc could overpower any one of them, but turning toward one exposed him to the other two.

Christopher waited for the Urak to commit to Walter or Ivo before striking at its open side.

The Urak released more Aura.

Pressure rolled across the wall. An apprentice dropped to one knee, and two soldiers behind the spear line lowered their weapons without meaning to.

Christopher’s Dragon blood answered with heat, and Thunder’s rage passed through the contract, breaking the worst of the pressure around him.

Walter and Ivo remained standing through training and Bronze Essence.

The Urak struck Walter again, but this time Walter turned the blow instead of taking it, and the axe slid across his shoulder plate, throwing sparks against the stone.

Ivo drove his sword into the gap beneath the Orc’s raised arm.

The blade entered flesh.

The Urak roared, trapped Ivo’s wrist, and lifted the Bronze Knight from the ground.

Christopher cut the gripping hand.

His sword bit through two fingers before stopping against bone. Ivo tore free and fell behind Walter.

The Urak turned on Christopher.

Walter’s spear entered the wound beneath his arm.

He pushed with both hands, and the point drove deeper, but the Urak caught the shaft and snapped it.

Walter released the broken weapon and drew his sword.

Across the wall, Godfrey continued fighting the larger Urak.

The Orc had stopped laughing. Blood covered one arm and ran from a cut above his eye. Godfrey’s cloak had been torn away, and the edge of his left pauldron hung loose.

The Urak attacked with a downward blow meant to split him from shoulder to hip.

Godfrey had fought Silver-ranked enemies before, and he recognized a fully committed blow in how the Orc planted his feet and locked his shoulders.

Godfrey stepped inside it.

His sword cut across the Orc’s wrist, and the axe struck stone instead of flesh; before the Urak could pull it free, Godfrey drove his shoulder into the Orc’s chest and sent him against the battlement.

The wall shook.

The Urak caught Godfrey by the throat.

Godfrey’s sword moved once.

The hand fell away at the wrist.

The Orc stared at the blood spraying from the stump as Godfrey drove his blade beneath the jaw and into the skull.

The first Urak collapsed beside the battlement.

Godfrey pulled his sword free and nearly lost his footing. The Urak had bruised his throat and opened the armor along his left shoulder, and blood moved beneath the damaged plates.

He set his own injuries aside.

He took in Walter, Ivo, and Christopher first: the second Urak still stood, the shaman still worked below, and Gruks continued pressing the ditch.

"Hold this section," he told Thomas.

The apprentice took Godfrey’s former place with three soldiers and lowered his spear toward the climbers.

Every ranked warrior felt his Aura disappear.

The Gruks below faltered, and the Throks shouted at them to continue, but the sound no longer carried the same certainty.

The shaman raised his staff and forced more Mana into the smoke.

Nicholas had reached the eastern tower.

From there he could see past the main shield line, and he rested his crossbow on the stone, waiting for the smoke to thin, until he found the bone charms.

"Shaman," he told the two men beside him.

All three aimed.

The first bolt struck a shield, and the second passed beneath the shaman’s raised arm, but Nicholas’s bolt entered the Orc’s side.

The shaman staggered but remained standing, turning toward the tower to begin another spell.

Nicholas spanned the crossbow again.

It took too long.

The shaman completed the first word, and dark smoke gathered around his staff.

The main-gate arbalest fired.

Wat had turned the frame as far as its mount allowed, and the heavy bolt crossed the road at an angle, missing the shaman’s body but striking the shield bearer in front of him. The shield broke, the Gruk behind it folded around the shaft, and the impact threw both bodies into the shaman.

The spell ended.

The smoke did not vanish at once: it lost direction, and wind caught the upper coils and tore them apart while the lower grey layer settled into the ditch.

Men on the wall removed wet cloth from their eyes, and the false horns stopped; for the first time since the attack began, Walter could hear orders from the gate tower clearly.

Crossbow crews returned to the battlements, archers could see the ditch again, and the attackers lost the confusion that had protected their advance.

Below, Gruks began looking north between charges. The Uraks had promised an easy wall, but one leader was dead, and the other was bleeding between three human Knights.

Nicholas fired his second bolt into the fallen shaman’s chest.

The grey smoke began to thin.

On the wall, the surviving Urak felt both losses.

He broke Walter’s sword near the guard and struck Ivo across the helmet; the magical metal held, but Ivo fell and did not rise immediately.

The Urak turned toward the outer edge.

He intended to leave.

Christopher stepped between him and the battlement.

The Urak sized up the young Bronze Knight and charged.

Christopher knew he could not stop the Urak alone.

He held the center of the walkway and forced the Orc to choose between slowing down or striking him aside. The Urak chose the strike.

Christopher moved with it.

The axe caught his sword near the guard, and metal screamed; his father’s blade remained whole, but the impact threw him into the inner battlement.

Pain crossed his back. He kept his feet.

The Urak reached the outer wall.

Below him, retreating Gruks were already crossing the ditch; if he jumped now, the wall would lose sight of him inside the smoke and confusion, and he could gather the surviving Throks and leave before the defenders reorganized.

Walter understood the same thing and attacked without waiting for Godfrey.

Walter caught him from behind.

The Bronze Knight wrapped one arm around the Orc’s wounded side and drove the broken end of his spear into the same gap Ivo had opened. The Urak twisted and struck him with an elbow.

Walter’s helmet split at the rim, and he fell onto the walkway.

Ivo rose on one knee and caught the Urak’s ankle.

The Orc dragged him two steps before kicking free.

Godfrey reached them.

His first cut opened the back of the Urak’s leg, and the second struck the axe and turned it away from Christopher; the Urak abandoned the wall edge and faced the Silver Knight.

He was wounded, but his Aura still pressed across the battlement.

Godfrey’s own Aura answered.

The ordinary soldiers could not enter the space between them, so they held the ends of the wall and killed the Gruks who continued climbing.

Christopher pulled Walter away from the edge; blood covered the side of the Knight’s face, but his eyes remained open.

"I can stand," Walter said.

"Then stand behind me for one breath."

Christopher helped him upright.

Godfrey and the Urak exchanged three blows: the first cracked another stone, the second drove Godfrey backward, and the third cut through the Orc’s shoulder plate.

Godfrey had spent much of his strength killing the first Urak, and the second saw the slower recovery and pressed him; Walter and Ivo forced the Orc to divide his attention, but neither Bronze Knight could take a full blow safely more than once.

Christopher found his sword and rejoined them.

His hands shook from pain and exhausted Essence, and Thunder’s fury burned through the bond.

He watched the opening Walter created and entered it.

The Urak lunged and caught Godfrey’s sword arm.

Ivo struck from the side.

His blade entered the wound behind the knee, and the Urak dropped onto one leg; Walter stepped forward with the broken spear and drove it through the gap beneath the Orc’s ribs.

Christopher joined them.

He used both hands and struck the Urak’s exposed neck.

His father’s sword cut deep but stopped before the spine.

The Urak backhanded him across the breastplate.

Christopher hit the ground. Air left his lungs.

Godfrey broke free and finished the cut.

The Urak’s head struck the walkway before his body followed.

For several breaths, nobody moved.

The dead Urak’s Aura faded, and the pressure that had covered the walkway disappeared so suddenly that several soldiers stumbled forward.

Walter placed one hand against the battlement, Ivo sat where he had fallen and tested his hearing by striking the side of his helmet, and Christopher leaned on his sword until he could breathe without seeing darkness at the edges of his vision.

Godfrey remained standing and raised his sword where the wall could see it.

"Both Uraks are dead."

The words travelled along the battlement, and some men shouted, but Walter silenced the nearest section before relief broke formation.

"The Throks are still below. Hold the wall."

Spears returned over the stone, and hook crews pushed the last climbers away; the battle had changed, but it had not ended.

Then the Gruks below began to retreat.

The four Throks tried to stop them: one still clung beneath the northern battlement with a broken hand, another had reached the western rubble, and the remaining two stood near the ditch, shouting and striking fleeing Gruks with spear shafts.

Walter leaned against the wall. "Gate stays closed until the lines form."

Christopher forced himself upright. His chest hurt where the Urak had struck him, and the armor beneath his coat had spread the force. Without it, the blow might have broken every rib on that side.

Ivo removed his helmet, blood running from one ear.

"Can you hear me clearly?" Godfrey asked.

"From the left. Everything on the other side sounds distant."

"Then you stay on the wall and command the men who remain here."

Ivo turned toward the retreating Orcs. "I can still ride."

"You can barely hear an order given beside you. You are staying."

Ivo considered the retreating Orcs once more and accepted the order.

Two soldiers lay dead near the place where the first Urak had landed: Arnold behind his broken shield, and Harris, thrown from the wall, whose body men were still bringing back through the inner gate.

Mabel’s helpers moved among the wounded: one apprentice held cloth against a soldier’s neck, another carried a man whose leg had bent beneath him.

Down on the road, the shaman was dead, both Uraks were dead, and smoke broke apart beneath the wind as the remaining Orcs left in separate groups.

Godfrey wiped his sword.

"If we let the Throks gather them, they return with another raid."

Walter straightened despite the blood on his face. "The soldiers are ready."

Christopher turned to the gate yard.

The reserve line remained formed: Bram stood behind it with his hammer, and the Black Iron prisoner still held his spear. The forty purchased soldiers defending the surface had lost two men and seen Uraks land among them, but they had not broken.

Christopher’s ribs hurt when he drew breath, and Walter and Ivo were both wounded. He would remain on the wall to control the reserves, watch the western approach and keep the retreat from becoming a blind chase. Godfrey would lead the force outside.

Christopher gave the order.

"Open the gate."