David Gemmell – Rigante 4 – Stormrider

‘You could marry in the cathedral. I could give the bride away.’

Huntsekker shook his head and stared hard at the Moidart. ‘There is a change in you, my lord. It is very unsettling.’

‘Perhaps I am mellowing with age.’

The next two weeks brought a lull in the fighting. No new forces attacked the lands of the Finance and the news from the east was routine. Supplies were reaching the coastal cities and Garan Beck had arranged convoys to Eldacre. Gaise Macon rode his two thousand cavalry south again, but encountered no enemy troops.

The attack when it came was sudden and deadly. Thirty thousand soldiers poured in to the east, cutting through Garan Beck’s defensive lines. He pulled back expertly and re-formed, but the fighting was fierce and he was forced further and further back towards Eldacre. Gaise Macon sent Kaelin Ring and the Rigante to support Beck, and waited. A second army, spearheaded by the dreaded Knights of the Sacrifice, thrust like a lance into the lands of the Finance. Hew Galliott tried to counter attack, but his troops were surrounded and all but annihilated. Hew himself was taken and publicly disembowelled. Gaise Macon led a series of lightning raids on the knights, temporarily halting their advance. Then he too pulled back to re-form.

Two thousand more Rigante, led by Bael Jace, arrived in Eldacre to support the army. These the Moidart sent west to join with Gaise Macon and his cavalry. The generals Konin and Mantilan remained in Eldacre with six thousand men, plus Bendegit Law and his fifty cannon.

For three days battles raged to the east and west. Beck and Ring’s Rigante took a heavy toll on the enemy, but could not prevent them inching ever nearer to the city. In the west Gaise Macon fought desperately to prevent the knights from advancing.

Then came the news that a third army, led by Winter Kay himself, was heading up from the south. Twenty thousand men and two hundred cannon.

‘I think we should make plans to leave Eldacre,’ said Huntsekker, as he and the Moidart walked the battlements of the castle.

‘I disagree,’ said the Moidart. ‘There is nothing north of us now. The Rigante are here, fighting with us. Running would only accelerate the inevitable. You may leave, Huntsekker. I shall stay. I may even fight.’

‘You have arthritis in your right arm, my lord. I doubt you could wield a sword for long.’

‘Then I shall take a selection of pistols. This is my land, Huntsekker. Damned if I’ll flee like a wretch.’

Then a surprising event occurred. Winter Kay’s southern army suddenly ceased its advance. Scouts reported that it had stopped at the Wishing Tree woods, and remained camped there for two days.

Winter Kay had awoken with a throbbing headache and a feeling of nausea. He had sat up long into the night holding the skull in his lap while reading reports from his generals. Eris Velroy was making slow progress in the east and taking heavy losses. He kept trying to draw the enemy into a major pitched battle, but Garan Beck was proving a wily adversary. Then there were the damned clansmen. Velroy had finally broken through and was in the act of encirclement when the Rigante charged, ripping through his ranks. Velroy had fallen back and summoned heavy cavalry. By the time they arrived the Rigante had melted away into the woods. Of the original thirty thousand men he had led east only around twelve thousand were able to fight. The enemy had suffered too. By Velroy’s estimation they had lost around half their men. This left between four and five thousand. Not enough to prevent him advancing, but more than enough to take a terrible toll on the attackers. In the west the Knights of the Sacrifice were faring little better. True, they had taken the castle of the Finance, but Gaise Macon had won several small victories, and the main force was pinned down some thirty miles from Eldacre. Gaise Macon’s cavalry, split into fast-moving strike units, raided behind the lines on one day, and on the flanks the next. Losses among the knights were also substantial. Yet day by day both armies were moving ever closer to Eldacre.

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