The
Baron rode towards Otto, cursing. The milling knights parted to allow a pathway
through.
‘You have no right to do this, you thief!’ he
shouted, ‘no right at all’
Otto looked at von Eisen as he approached.
His gaze did not falter.
‘I am the one’ the Baron continued, ‘the King
under the Emperor – I have been chosen’
‘I am trying to help’ explained Otto, ‘I am
trying to save your men’
‘Save? I think not. You are a villain – you
come to take my prize…’
Von Eisen drew his sword. Otto made his horse
retreat a few steps – he had no desire to fight.
‘No,
not at all...let me explain’ he spluttered.
‘Draw your sword!’ von Eisen commanded, ‘I
need to punish you’
Otto shook his head.
‘We can work together’ he explained, ‘we can
get them all away, now – the monsters are dead’
He looked up into the sky, it was empty.
‘We can easily outrun the red cloak army –
they are disorganised and without mounts’
The Baron paid no attention to his fellow grand
master; instead he rode up and slashed at Otto with his sword. There was no
warning, just one expert manoeuvre. Otto tilted backwards, but the blade still
struck him a glancing blow on his arm, close to the shoulder. He cried out and
grabbed his arm as blood poured from the wound onto the ground. He looked
astonished, but then something triggered inside him, some sort of realisation. He
looked as if he had suddenly solved some complex mathematical problem.
‘That is the end, my Lord’ he said, retreating
rapidly backwards, ‘you have forfeited your right to lead this army’
‘What?’ bellowed the Baron, ‘why do you speak
this nonsense?’
He steadied his horse in preparation for
another charge.
‘I have to tell you’ shouted Otto, to the
Baron and to everyone around him, ‘that the Emperor has charged me with the
authority to remove you from your post. And I exercise that right now, as you
have clearly lost sight of our collective mission’
But von Eisen wasn’t listening. He rode
forward, brandishing his sword at the unarmed man on his grey horse, ready to
smite and hoping to kill.
From nowhere there was a rapid flurry of
movement and then another’s sword intercepted the falling blow.
‘That’s enough, my dear Ernst’ said Gerard,
his sword pressed up against the Baron’s, ‘I think it’s time to pack up and go
home’
‘You!’ said Otto and von Eisen together.
Neither of them had seen his approach; Otto hadn’t seen him at all for several
hours.
‘Yes, me’ said Gerard, ‘who else could be so
sneaky?’
‘What are you doing?’ exclaimed the Baron,
‘have you gone mad’
Gerard smiled and slowly positioned his horse
so that it blocked the way through to Otto. Several of the Pale Flame knights
had now surrounded their grandmaster and were binding his wound.
‘Mad? Me? No, I think that’s probably you…’
The two horses stood parallel to each other,
facing in opposite directions. Their
riders were now face to face, with their swords pressed closely together.
‘Let me through, you mendacious fool’
Gerard shook his head. The Baron struggled to pass him but Gerard
was far more agile than him at close quarters. Otto was now shielded by a dozen
pale knights and a thin line of crimson knights began to congregate around them
in defence – von Eisen stood no chance of catching his rival now.
‘Why are you doing this?’ he barked, pressing
as hard as he could against his opponent.
Gerard refused to move.
‘I could ask you the same question – I
thought that the two of you were on the same side…’
‘He has no right! He has no authority!’
‘He’s saving your army – had you not noticed
that?’
The Baron looked around the battlefield. He
needed to rally his men against multiple threats, but first he had to get rid
of this ridiculous charlatan. That, at least, should be easy.
‘How many sovereigns will it take to make you
go away?’ he asked, as calmly as he could.
Gerard considered this carefully. He looked
out across the ragged army.
‘I think that you lost your baggage train and
quite probably all your treasure some time ago, my lord… And I’m not the sort
of man to take an IOU. So, you’re not in a position to bargain, I’d say. I
think I’ll stay with being paid with real money… ’
Von Eisen felt anger stir inside him again. He
looked at Gerard in wonder and hatred.
‘How can such a man as you dare to defy me? I
am of a kingly caste. What sort of world is it that would allow a creature like
you to profit from such dishonour and despair?’
‘It’s a sad, sad world indeed, my dear Baron…
and so very unfair’
As he spoke, Gerard smiled sympathetically; then
kicked the Baron sharply in the shin. Von Eisen let out an involuntary cry and
his grip on his sword loosened enough for it to fall out of his hand. Gerard
rode eagerly away, disappearing into the swarming soldiery.
Von Eisen’s anger ebbed away. He stared down
at his fallen sword. He began to realise that this was to be the end of his
ambitions. He despised Otto as a fool and weakling, but he had always known
that the weaker man had the support of the emperor and that he did not. It
hadn’t mattered before, when he had the forces to impose his own vision of the
future, but now his own men were deserting him, and his only thought was to
escape to safety. He also knew that he had assaulted an officer of the emperor
and so now he was nothing more than an outlaw, just a common criminal.
***
Euphorbia
got her followers to guide the exhausted witches away from the new hilltop
copse that they had inadvertently created. She also delivered Lily back to
Victoria, who after that wrapped her in cotton wool and watched her like a hawk.
They made their way from the battlefield to safety, escorted by a dozen pale
flame knights.
Otto and Euphorbia had agreed on this plan –
that if the sky monsters could be killed then Otto would try to save as many
knights as possible while Euphorbia would smuggle the witches away before their
involvement became obvious and potentially politically disastrous. They had done their jobs – to defeat Kratos
and his monsters – and any reasonable observer would see that as proper Hybitor
work, fighting against an old enemy. Anything beyond that, however, was
Imperial business. In any case, none of the witches had any energy left and so
to allow them to stay on the battlefield was inviting the possibility that one
of them might die in the fray. That was an eventuality whose ramifications
could affect north-south relations for many human generations. John was groggy but also sensible enough to
agree.
So, the Orbiverdi had half-led and
half-carried their charges up into the mountains and away from the battle
below. They had hideouts throughout the
northern part of Tlaxaca, and there was one fairly close, just about a day’s
slow progress away from Huatalacan. It
was much smaller than the one to the north of Monurbis, but it would do well
enough.
Euphorbia, meanwhile, hurried by hidden
routes back to Monurbis, where she had unfinished business.
Once they had got the witches away from the
battle they kept them hidden for several days until they were recovered enough
to teleport to their homes. By then, in
any case, all the battles were over.
***
The
Tlaxacan army had overwhelmed the combined knights near the city and now the
knights were retreating, but in good order. However, the strange thing was that
they were not retreating as a single unit: one group, led by Otto, was fighting
a classical rear guard action and falling back slowly towards Monurbis. The
other group, led by von Eisen, was fleeing back as rapidly as possible, flowing
in small groups of riders, past the edge of Otto’s well-disciplined army. It
seemed that they and their deposed grand master no longer had any plans except
to escape back to wherever might be safest.
The Tlaxacan force was not large, perhaps
forty thousand bodies in total, and certainly not enough to overwhelm the main Crimson
flame army. However, now that that force was split it wasn’t clear to Otto what
von Eisen would do next: any conflict between the two groups of knights would
undoubtedly imperil them all.
In fact, the Baron was making rapidly for
Monurbis, using the rear guard as a shield. Otto didn’t realise this until it
was almost too late, but he just had enough time to signal to the Orbiverdi to
act.
Above Monurbis a sea of green figures climbed
down the slopes. They were singing as they went. The city below had only a
skeleton crew of crimson knight defenders and none of them could resist the
enchantment. They fell gratefully asleep at their tasks, and as one of those
tasks had been closing the main gate, Euphorbia’s followers had been able to
walk straight in. They closed the gates
just in time to prevent the renegade knights from entering it. It was only a
matter of an hour or so later that Otto, racing back from the front line, was
able to enter the city and claim it back for the Emperor.
Frustrated, the crimson knights galloped on
back towards the Great West Road. But as they struggled on hour by hour their
numbers dwindled; von Eisen had lost the confidence of his men. Some made their
way back to Monurbis, some rushed on ahead in order to hurry home, others
simply fell, exhausted, on the road. By the time the Baron came within three
days ride of Ortia his host numbered less than a thousand and it was simple for
the Emperor’s troops, coming from the east, to disarm them and arrest the
grandmaster. He was taken to Ortia, where he was thrown into prison, but
treated kindly – by that stage he was a broken, confused and ragged man. No-one, of course, had any idea what to do
with him.
