Tales of Ayralef- The Last Campaign Chapter 4

Chapter Four- Race For The Ridge

22 miles from Lake City on Imperial Road number 371. 7:30 am

             The early morning sun was beginning to brighten the sky as the long columns of Imperial infantry as they marched down one of the long roads that led toward Lake City. The dust raised by the marching troops coated their battle stained armor and mixed with the sweat on the areas of their skin not covered by armor or clothing to form a gritty mud. The order to concentrate and move out had come two days earlier and the officers had rushed to get their soldiers into marching order. They had been besieging the Western Kingdom’s border and had been settled into the siege works for months when word came of the break out by a large army of Crimson Fairies under the command Grand Captain Liatris. Known in the Empire as the Fire Witch, Liatris had slipped past the patrols and was spotted later heading toward Lake City with intent to raid the massive supply base being assembled there. The 2^nd Frontier Army was then ordered to pull out from the siege lines because it was the nearest army and intercept Liatris before she reached the base. At 60,000 soldiers in strength it was the smallest of the of the three Imperial Frontier armies but had many crack units among its ranks including the famed 7^th Heavy Imperial Guards regiment, one entirely of inus and the 3^rd Harpy Wing which was made up 400 harpies and their handlers, of which 12 of the harpies were giant familiars. The wing was commanded by Captain Jaleana, The Hurricane, who was one of the most powerful harpy familiars in the army. And then there were the anti-magic field generators that were just issued to the army.

            Duke Honorius Tirion sat on his horse surrounded by his headquarters staff as he watched the 11^th grand division passed on its way toward the concentration point. The middle aged neko general had chestnut brown hair with a few streaks gray in it and the black fur on his ears and tail was also going gray which gave him a regal look even though he was covered in dust and grime. His face was weathered and tanned which made his blue eyes stand out all the more. He knew he had to hurry his troops along as fast as he could but if he force marched them too hard they would be in no condition to fight if they encountered the enemy. But he had no choice. He had to get in front of Liatris and stop her no matter the cost. With a sigh he turned to a young red headed harpy lieutenant on his staff.

          “Litsia, I want you to locate each of my grand division commanders and inform them to increase their pace. We must be concentrated no later than tonight at the Littleton cross roads. We must beat Liatris there. Now go with the utmost haste.”

         “Yes my Lord!” Litsia said as she raised her wing in a salute and jumped up into the air and was gone.

        Hurry girl and be safe. Honorius thought as he turned back to watch the 11^th grand division’s ballista batteries as they began to pass, the hundreds of mules and horses stirring up an even bigger dust cloud than the marching infantry which he knew could be seen many miles away by an airborne fairy scout. I hope Jaleana is using her girls to keep those fairies from spotting our troop movements. Just at that moment a dark shadow passed over the column which caused him to look up. High above two giant harpies passed overhead along with at least a squad of human sized ones flanking them. As he watched, one of the human sized ones with short brown hair and two toned brown feathers peeled off from the formation and spiraled down toward him and then landed beside him and saluted with a big grin.

        “Hello father! I have a message from—“.  The girl started to say but Honorius raised a hand and stopped her.

        “While we are in the field and away from home you will observe protocol Lieutenant Tirion.”

        Adair Tirion rolled her eyes at her father, sighed and started over again. “My Lord, I have a message from Captain Jaleana. We have successfully screened all of the columns except the 5^th and 1^st grand divisions.  She reports that there is a fairy column of at least legion strength moving up Imperial road 476 supported by four batteries of artillery and is bearing down on Lord Arikan’s 1^st grand division and will at their current pace intercept him within the next hour. We are searching for the other legions but have encountered only air born fairy scouts and pickets that have aggressively prevented us from getting through. We suspect that there is at least one legion on the road behind the 5^th. The Captain wishes to know what you want her to do. She awaits your orders my lord.”

        Honorius looked up at the circling harpies and rubbed his chin as he considered his options. He could order Jaleana’s harpy wing to attack and try to delay that legion and allow Arikan to escape but that would mean sacrificing his air cover and against Liatris he knew he was going to need it. No, Arikan was on his own. He was a veteran soldier who knew his job well. Besides he had an anti-magic field generator with him that would force the fairies to fight without their magic and knowing Liatris, magic or not, she would attack. The thought of fairies fighting without any of their magic pleased him greatly. He smiled and looked over at his daughter.

        “Tell Captain Jaleana to keep our movements screened and keep harassing their scouts and pickets and aggressively probe in the direction of where she thinks Liatris’s main body is. Tell her to keep me informed of any changes of the situation.” Tirion said as he put his hand on Adair’s shoulder. “Be careful Adair. This is your first campaign and our opponent is the Fire Witch Liatris. She is one of the best fairy generals of their alliance. This is going to be a hard fight daughter, very hard fight indeed.”

        “You worry too much father. I am the embodiment of caution. After all, my mother is Dyna the Lighting Harpy and my father is Duke Honorius Tirion, The Iron Neko.” Adair said with a grin and saluted.

        Honorius sighed and shook his head. “Go.”

        Adair saluted and spread her wings jumped up into the air and was gone. A single two toned brown feather floated down and toward Honorius and he reached up and caught it. He stared at for a moment, then gently kissed it and then tucked it into his pouch.

        “Lord Tirion!” A voice cried and Honorius turned his head toward the sound and watched as a very tired and upset looking harpy staff officer landed clumsily, stumbling and startling his horse.

        “Take a breath Lieutenant Eya.” Honorius said as he dismounted and walked up the wheezing and obviously upset harpy. He knew her as one of Jeffries’s staff officers and the one that was entrusted with the most important messages. “Tell me what has happened.”

        “Sir, I have terrible news! General Jeffries is dead!” The young harpy officer almost cried. “He was killed leading the 91^st Infantry in an attack against the lead elements of the legion chasing us. After his death was confirmed, General Belfour assumed command and is moving the grand division through Phellos towards Littleton. He hopes to fall in behind General Arikan by the end of the day on the Littleton Road. He awaits your orders.”

         “Jeffries is dead? Damn it all! Why was he leading an attack? He knew better than to do that.” Honorius said angrily and clenched his fist. “And why was he heading to Phellos? He was supposed to be heading towards Old Tree along Road 372. Why did he turn toward Phellos? Do you know why?”

         Eya gulped at the general’s anger and then continued to speak. “General Haliford and Belfour convinced him that it was quicker and he could reach the concentration point in less time than if he went the 372 route. Also our scouts reported that there was an enemy force moving towards Old Tree and since he did not know its strength he wanted to avoid contact with it.” Eya said as she regained some of her composure.

          Honorius listened to the girl speak as thoughts swirled in his head. According to the maps that he had studied lastnight the road from Phellos would connect to road 371 a few miles from Littleton. And that junction was already in Liatris’s control. That would mean that Fifth Grand Division would be caught between two legions if it kept advancing and destroyed. He turned to the young harpy who had now fallen silent.

         “I want you to go and tell General Belfour to find another route to the rendezvous point. Tell him if continues on his current route he will be marching into a trap. Understood?”  Honorius said and then wrote his orders down and handed them to an aid that put the message into a small metal cylinder and clipped it to Eya’s belt.

         “Understood sir.” Eya said and took flight without having to be ordered to.

         Honorius then remounted his horse and turned to General Ularis who commanded the First Grand Division.

         “I am heading to confer with General Arikan. Follow the orders I have given and await my return.”

        “Yes my Lord.” Ularis said and saluted.

         Honorius returned the salute and headed in the direction of Arikan’s command just as the distant rumble of a battle began to be heard in the distance.

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Imperial Road 371, 29 miles from Lake City

       Lord Rikard Arikan watched as the red headed harpy messenger disappeared into the sky. So Honorius wants me to hurry up to Littleton. Well that’s not going to happen. I have one of the Fire Witch’s best legions bearing down on me and my troops are almost at the limit of their speed. I have 12,000 good troops that have a lot of fight in them but I need to find the right ground to deploy them on. I can’t keep running. He thought as he watched his artillery pass by. He had ordered his second division to fall behind to protect it from the fairy legion’s vanguard in case they were overtaken. He then raised his spyglass and scanned the road behind him. He could see the remains of his grand division’s cavalry regiment heading toward the rear of the column at a gallop. He noticed that their centaur captain was not among them. He cursed silently under his breath as he counted their diminished numbers. He had warned the captain not to be so reckless and only harass the advancing fairies and not to engage in heavy combat. With Gregory dead he would have to depend on Revella to take command of the regiment. She was much more level headed, calm and did not seek out glory. He should have put her in charge instead of Gregory but he hated to risk his most trusted cavalry captain.

      He turned his spyglass to the low ridge up ahead that bordered the flood plain of the small stream that meandered through the green summer pastures that bordered the road and decided that he liked the ground. It was very defensible. There was a lower shelf that ran the most of the length that would be perfect to place his ballistae on with clean fields of fire across the whole front and a good road ran along the top of the rise and parallel to the stream and would allow for quick troop movements along the line. The left flank was secured by a large millpond and the right by a small gorge where the stream had eroded its way through the ridge. If he could delay the fairies long enough it would allow his grand division to deploy and occupy the ridge and hold the main roads bridge that crossed the stream in front of the pond. His scouts had been right when they had said there was some very defensible ground between before Littleton. To him it was even better than the ground in front of Angkora where he had repulsed attack after attack terrible day. Let Liatris try and drive me off these heights. And deploying here should please the good people of Littleton and ease their panic a bit. If we deploy here it will cut the main road to Lake City and for the Fire Witch to either attack or take another route which would allow us to pull out and reach Lake City before she does. He thought and lowered his glass and took out his pad and pencil and scribbled a message to Honorius that he was deploying his grand division. When he was done he turned to his chief courier, a blonde, petite young harpy major named Erika.

      “Take this to Lord Tirion as fast as you can with my compliments. He should be on the road ahead.” He said as rolled up the piece of paper and stuck it into a small cylinder and clipped it to Erika’s belt. “Go.”

      Without a word the young harpy took to the sky and headed toward where the 11^th grand division was located at her best speed.

      Arikan turned to his staff and began giving orders for the two rearmost regiments of his second division buy time for his artillery and his divisions move off the road and take up positions along the ridge above the stream and then turned to his horse around and headed toward the ridge to supervise the placement of his units.

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Imperial Road 371 3 Miles ahead of 11^th Grand Division

        Two miles ahead of the 11^th Grand Division the centauress Elena of the 18^th light Cavalry regiment was enjoying the warm summer day even though she was sweating under her armor. It was light armor compared to what heavy cavalry wore but it was still hot. She pulled off her glove and ran her fingers through her sweat drenched pale yellow hair and sighed. She had languished while the army was in the siege works. Her unit had been used to escort and guard the supply trains that filled the roads to the front. It was inglorious but necessary work that bored her to death. She had seen no action since the siege had started so when the orders to give chase to the fairy army she was thrilled. Daydreams of glory filled her mind as she galloped along the dusty road with the rest of her regiment. She would screen the column and would not allow any fairy ground patrols discover it. She only hoped those flanking pickets and harpy patrols did their jobs as good as she did hers.    

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A forested hill 5 Miles East Of Imperial Road 371

         Kit Glynwyn looked down at the fairy at his feet that was still twitching as she finished bleeding out from the wound caused by the arrow that was sticking out of her neck. It had been a lucky shot and cut her jugular vein so death was quick. This was the third scout his pickets had slain in the last hour. The Fire Witch is serious this time about not being taken by surprised after the rout she suffered outside at Angkora last year. He thought. All the roads leading to Lake City were crawling with these damn green armored scouts. It was hard to ambush those sneaky bastards so his pickets had to be very quiet and sneaky. With a sigh he pulled his deep green and brown blended hood back over his head, knocked another arrow and motioned for his pickets to continue on with their patrol.

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Imperial Road 371, 33 Miles from Lake City

            The concussive spell from the Imperial battle mage detonated close to Joli and knocked her to the ground. The commander of the 67^th Century felt as if she was floating, not sure if she was alive or dead. She got back up to her knees. Someone was helping her. She could feel hands on her shoulders, someone pulling her up.

            No pain, just numbness. The thought triggered a momentary panic in her. She had seen fairies eviscerated by the force of those spells when their armor forced through their bodies, their entrails looping out on the ground, get back up and walk a few more feet before they collapsed dead. She started franticly feel her chest and stomach.

            “Major Joli!”

            Sound was returning and the hazy mist that clouded her eyes began to fade. It was Sergeant Mallory who was speaking, holding her and turning her around. “Are you okay?”

            Joli tried to speak but couldn’t.

            Someone else came up to her side. It was her orderly, Barri, her eyes wide with fear. “You are alright ma’am. It was just a close one, that’s all.”

            Mallory was shouting, and Joli looked around. The noise was returning, the wild roar of battle, the swirling dust and the thunder of the concussive spells detonating among her troops, the wringing of steel upon steel and the sound of crossbow bolts whistling through the air. It was an utter chaos of sounds. The century had been ordered to break out of marching formation and form into line of battle and attack the Imperial regiment that was blocking the road ahead. All had went well and they had deployed quickly and pushed up the road in good order. As they approached the Imperials their pace had quickened with the idea of an easy victory as they slammed into the first line of the enemy, which after a few minutes, was overwhelmed and began to fall back up the road. Sensing an easy victory, the fairies pushed toward the second line, confidant that it would break with the same ease as the first, they dropped their shields so that they could move faster and because a fleeing enemy was easy prey. But as they closed with the second line they noticed that the Imperials were not fleeing and from behind the first rank the second rank pushed forward and leveled at least three hundred of the new crossbows that were being issued to Imperial infantry regiments along with six battlemages who had been hiding. The charge slowed, but their momentum carried them forward as the crossbow bolts and concussive spells slammed into the charging fairies. The charge collapsed as several hundred fairies dropped into the high grass or fell onto the crushed stone of the road, some still, others writhing in agony.      

            Joli looked past Mallory at the line of troops and cursed. The charge had collapsed and had stalled just in front of the Imperials. She had to get them moving again before they were slaughtered.

            “All right. I’m all right. Keep moving!” Joli shouted. She broke free of Mallory’s grasp and at that same instant another spell detonated and Barri seemed to disappear in a bloody spray of armor and body parts that soaked her and Mallory.

            Mallory staggered back, stunned, her face and hair covered in blood and bits of flesh.

            Joli turned away and struggled not to vomit.

           “Joli!”

           She looked up; the voice was clear and recognizable despite the roar of battle. Lady Bekia, commander of the first division of Xanthe’s legion rode up to Joli and glared at her.

          “Damn it Joli! Move these fairies!” Bekia screamed. “You have to keep them moving! We must drive them out of our way!”

          The sense of what she was supposed to do, why she was here, quickly returned. She saluted as Bekia turned her horse about and disappeared back into the dust and smoke trailed by her staff.

         “Come on! Are you Xanthe’s girls or are you Western Kingdom cowards? We can’t stay here! Come on!” Joli shouted waving her sword.

         The battle line started to surge forward as she heard Bekia screaming behind her urging them onward from farther down the line.

         The momentum of the charge began to build again, and she felt swept up in it, driven forward like a leaf, one of thousands of leaves flung into the mouth of a hurricane.

          “Go, go, go!”

          She kept shouting the single word over and over as she urged her troops forward. The line began again to push ahead, cutting down any Imperial troops that dared turn and face them. Another concussive spell detonated on her left, knocking down the century’s standard bearer. But in an instant the girl was back up. Disbelieving, Joli saw that the girl had lost her right arm, blown off at the shoulder. The girl was holding the banner in her left hand, waving it defiantly, screaming for the century to press on and kill the hated Imperials.

         The firing of the spells slowed and stopped altogether as they advanced in to the dust. Where they running? Imperials always ran before Crimson Fairy charges. Then Joli saw it.

         The Imperials had reformed their lines across the road and stood ready to meet the charge as a second Imperial regiment joined them and was forming behind the lines of the survivors of the first regiment. The first regiment’s survivors were rapidly reloading their crossbows and among the line of troops were the battlemages who were preparing to cast their concussive spells at the renewed charge. The sunlight glinted off the Imperials polished crossbows as they raised them from the loading position to the ready.

         “Merciful Gods!” Joli whispered horror at what she saw.

         The advancing line of fairies slowed at the sight before them. Cries of fear, horror, anger and defiance spread down the line as some fairies raised their hands to fire their own spells at the line of Imperials.

        “No! No! Don’t stop! Charge them!”  Joli shouted and charged ahead of the line of fairies swinging her sword. She watched as the crossbows lowered and were aimed. It seemed that all of them were pointed at her.

        “Charge them! Charge them!”

        Before Joli could shout a third time the Imperials fired their volley.

        The volley swept over them, through them, tearing gaping holes in the line. Both standard bearers fell and it was a long moment before the flags were picked up off the blood soaked ground by trembling hands. The entire line staggered, took a step back and began to break.

        Joli was stunned. Somehow all those bolts and spells had missed her. She shook off her shock as she turned to try and stop her troops from falling back.

        “Rally! Rally! Forward!” She shouted as her voice began to break from the strain of constant shouting. It was then she saw a second century pushing up through her shattered lines, shields raised and a grim look of determination on their dirty faces.

        “Fall back Joli! Let us handle this! Your girls have done enough.” A colonel said with a grim smile as she approached Joli.

       “Carissa?” Was all that Joli managed to croak from her parched throat.

       “Yeah, it’s me. Now fall back. Your girls are all fought out. Get them out of here.” Carissa said as she continued on forward with her girls.

       Joli watched as the last of Carissa’s troops passed through the wreckage of her century and with a sigh she cleared her throat and gave the order to fall back and headed toward the rear with the remnants of her shattered command.

       As she walked slowly to the rear she was joined by Mallory who offered Joli her canteen.

      “That was hot. Those damn Imperials just wouldn’t run. Something has really got their moral up. I wonder what it is.” Mallory said as she wiped the blood and dirt off her face.

      “They are fighting to defend their homeland. We would do the same if we were in their position, I would think. And they smell victory. They are as weary of this war as we are.” Joli said wearily as they continued toward the rally point under a group of large trees with the rest of her command was gathering.

Imperial Road 371, 37 miles from Lake City.

          The marching column of fairies of Xanthe’s 4^th Legion stretched for almost two miles along Imperial Road 476, their booted or sandaled feet stirring up dust as they marched along the well maintained road. Most people would assume that since fairies had wings that they would be flying instead of marching but with their heavy armor and packs flying was impractical and tiring. Only couriers flew and unless scouting, picketing or raiding during which they wore only light armor they tended to fight on the ground. For decades the fairies of the Crimson Wood had trained to march and fight like the soldiers of the Empire because they knew a new age of warfare was upon them, an age where they could no longer depend on magic alone to win their battles. The military leaders had studied the way the Empire had put the dridder rebellion down and took those lessons to heart so when the war broke out they were on the same level as the Imperial troops and were able to match them on the field. After ten years of fierce fighting and grievous losses they had managed to thwart the Empire’s advances into their territories and had destroyed two major cities and numerous towns and villages and occupied a large part of Imperial territory and years of stalemate ensued. Then with the defeat of the combined army of fairies on the approaches to the city of Angkora and the failed offensive to take the Imperial capital they were forced onto the defensive. The situation became even direr by the arrival two more Imperial armies and the competent officers that now commanded them. All the conquered Imperial lands were liberated within a few months and the fairies forced back to their borders and the war degenerated in a static war of attrition that the fairies knew they could not win.         

           The steady sounds of marching had always been soothing to Xanthe, almost relaxing. She had been a soldier her whole life and had worked her way up the ranks to command a legion. None of the promotions were due to who she was in her tribe. It was her leadership and skill that marked her as one of Liatris’s premier commanders. Her actions at the Battle of Angkora had earned her a place of command in the reorganized Crimson Fairy Army. She stood with her ever present staff on a low knoll watching her troops marching past. Her legion was unique in that it was the only all female one and they were among the best soldiers that the Crimson Wood could field, though quite a few of the newer centuries were filled with green recruits and some of the veteran units had been diluted with untried replacements as well. But they were her girls and she loved them dearly, but it was a tragic love. To be a good soldier you had to love the army, to be a good general you had to be willing to order the death of that which you loved was something that Xanthe understood all too well. Hers was the lead legion in the order of march and Liatris often accompanied her but at the moment the Grand Captain was traveling with Canna, the commander of the legion directly behind hers trying to speed up that legions pace. Liatris had left Xanthe with the orders to engage and if possible destroy the Imperial grand division that was on the road directly ahead of her but not to engage if any of the other grand divisions appeared on the field. She had already smashed the rear guard pickets and brushed aside the cavalry regiment that tried to disrupt her advance. Reports were streaming in that the grand division she was pursuing was pulling off the road and taking up a defensive position on a low ridge that was bordered the small floodplain of a stream while a couple of regiments appeared to be deploying across the road but the aggressive harpy patrols were preventing her scouts from getting exact information on the enemies’ position from above.

            “What is that human up to?” she whispered to herself as she read the latest scout reports and then unrolled a map and gave it a quick look over to see just what piece of ground that the Imperial general was so interested in was like.

           “You say something General?” the closest of her staff turned and asked.

           “Sorry, just thinking out loud Trillia.  But I do have a task for you. I want you to ride back and inform Grand Captain Liatris off the situation. Go.”

           “Yes My Lady!” Trillia said as she saluted and turned her horse toward the head of the column and galloped off. 

            Xanthe turned to the rest of her staff and was about to issue orders to them when a breathless messenger dropped down out of the sky in front of them, causing Xanthe’s staff to draw their weapons in alarm but she raised her hand to stop them and walked over to the panting currier and put her hand on her shoulder.

           “Take it easy and breathe in slowly. That’s it.”  Xanthe said as she offered the winded fairy a drink from her canteen.

           The young fairy gulped the water and almost choked on it. When she swallowed the last gulp she turned to Xanthe and was about to speak when multiple booms came rolling in from toward the front of the legion.

          “Those were magic blasts. But whose side were they from?” The staff muttered among themselves and turned to the messenger for answers.

          The currier who was now breathing normally saluted Xanthe and spoke. “Lady Bekia reports that two imperial regiments from the grand division we are pursuing turned and blocked the road. Lady Bekia didn’t think we should be stopped by such a small force and ordered her two lead centuries to drive them off the road and open the way for our advance, but the first century’s attack was repulsed with heavy losses and the second century attacking as we speak.”   

         Xanthe pondered the situation a moment and then scowled. “Damn. Why is Bekia feeding her units in one at a time? This delay will give them time to deploy. Damn it all! Go tell Bekia to order all of her command forward now! Not just a brigade but her entire division! I want those Imperials swept off that road and off that ridge. Tell her not to feed her units in piecemeal but all at once. Hurry! Damn it girl, Hurry! Hurry!”    

         The girl snapped of a salute and leapt into the air and headed back the way she had come. Xanthe watched the currier lift off and then turned to her staff.

        “I am heading to front of the column to see what is going on for myself.” Xanthe said and mounted her horse and turned it around and headed up the road past her marching troops followed closely by her staff.