Chapter 86 — Beyond the Gate

Chapter 86: Chapter 86 — Beyond the Gate

Chapter 86 — Beyond the Gate

The gate opened only wide enough for the first spear line.

Godfrey led the center, with Walter taking the left despite the cut along his temple; Thomas carried Walter’s spare spear and stayed close enough to replace it if needed.

Twenty soldiers followed in three ranks, reinforced by five Knight Apprentices. Bram remained behind the center, where his hammer could reach anything that broke through without opening a gap in the shield line.

The Black Iron prisoner stood in the second rank, his shortened chain removed, since Walter had ordered it unlocked before the gate opened.

"You return with the line," Walter told him.

"Yes, Sir."

Ivo remained on the wall with the wounded, the crossbow crews and the apprentices who stayed behind. The other soldiers held their assigned sections.

The spear line crossed the ditch.

Bodies and broken brush made the footing uneven, and the first rank slowed without stopping. Men stepped where the soldier ahead had stepped, keeping their shields together while Orc arrows struck around them.

One arrow lodged in a shield, and another entered the mail over a soldier’s upper arm. He remained in formation until the second rank replaced him.

Walter had drilled that movement for weeks; on the practice field it had looked unnecessarily slow, but outside the gate it kept one wound from opening the entire line.

From the wall, Christopher watched the western trees while runners brought reports from the sortie. He wanted to follow Godfrey — every breath reminded him why that would be foolish — and more importantly, someone had to close the gate if another group appeared behind the first.

Thunder pushed against the bond again, and Christopher showed her the formed spear line and the two dead Uraks on the wall.

Wait.

Her anger remained, but she stopped striking at the bond.

The first Throk charged before the soldiers reached level ground, blood covering one hand where Godfrey had cut away his fingers during the assault.

Godfrey met him alone.

The Throk struck once. Godfrey turned the spear and cut through his throat.

The soldiers stepped around the body without breaking formation.

Godfrey let the retreating Gruks go and returned to the center, where broken ground and scattered Orcs still threatened the formation ahead.

Two more Throks gathered Gruks near the road, trying to build a line from retreating fighters, but the Gruks had watched both Uraks die; some obeyed, and others continued north.

Walter gave the advance command.

Shields moved together, spears lowering over them.

The Orc line struck first.

Gruks possessed the strength of trained human apprentices even without human Knight Essence, and their axes hit shields hard enough to numb arms. One soldier fell when a spear entered above his knee.

The second rank closed the space before the Gruks could enter.

"Step," Walter called.

The soldiers advanced one pace.

"Thrust."

Spears entered Orc bodies.

"Back."

The front rank withdrew its points while the second covered it.

The formation was not perfect. One soldier thrust too far and lost his spear, and another raised his shield when he should have kept it locked beside his neighbor, but the apprentices corrected the gaps before the Orcs used them.

The Orcs struck again before the line recovered fully. Three Gruks hit the left edge together: Walter met the first, Thomas killed the second with a thrust beneath the ribs, and the third forced between two shields and reached the second rank.

The Black Iron prisoner turned his spear across his body and stopped the axe, and a soldier beside him drove a short blade into the Gruk’s neck.

The prisoner released the damaged spear, took the one dropped earlier, and remained inside the line.

A Throk hit the right side.

His Aura shook the nearest soldiers; he broke one spear and pulled a shield from its owner’s hand.

Bram moved when Thomas called his name.

The warhammer struck the Throk’s shield. Wood and iron folded inward, and the Orc staggered.

Bram raised the hammer again.

"Left," Thomas shouted.

Bram changed direction. His second swing caught the axe coming toward his ribs and knocked it aside, and the Black Iron prisoner drove his spear through the Throk’s opened chest.

The prisoner pulled the weapon free and returned to line.

Bram did the same.

The soldiers moved forward.

On the left, Walter fought the third Throk with a borrowed spear, his damaged helmet removed and blood dried beside one eye.

The Throk attacked with a broad blade taken from a human polearm. Walter allowed the first strike to pass, trapped the shaft beneath his spear, and stepped inside its reach; his point entered the Orc’s throat.

The last Throk remained near the western group.

Those Orcs had never reached the wall. They saw the human formation advancing from the gate and began retreating across the broken ground.

Godfrey held the soldiers back from the rubble.

He signaled the wall.

Crossbows fired from above. One Gruk fell, and another dropped his shield and ran faster.

The final Throk tried to hold the narrow path long enough for the others to escape, but Godfrey reached him before Walter could shift the line.

The Throk possessed less Aura than the Uraks but remained fresh, using the rubble to prevent more than one human from reaching him at a time. Godfrey climbed the broken path without rushing.

The Orc thrust; Godfrey turned the point and cut the shaft. The Throk drew a hand axe and attacked before the broken spear reached the ground.

Their weapons met twice.

The Throk died on the third exchange.

With all four Throks down, the retreat became a rout.

Godfrey allowed the formation to advance as far as the first northern marker. Beyond that point, scattered trees and rising ground would break the line.

"Stop."

The soldiers stopped.

The rear rank nearly walked into the men ahead before the command reached them. Sergeants repeated it, shields settled, and nobody crossed the marker.

Godfrey allowed them a short time to breathe before ordering the wounded carried back, the uninjured keeping their weapons facing north.

The soldiers faced north until they reached the ditch, then crossed together. Apprentices helped the wounded over the broken footing while Bram and the Black Iron prisoner watched the trees at the rear.

Only after the gate closed did the surviving soldiers lower their shields.

Several breathing men stared at the fleeing Orcs, the urge to chase showing in their faces.

Godfrey turned toward them. "Anyone who leaves formation dies alone."

Nobody moved.

Christopher reached the field after the fighting ended. His ribs hurt beneath the armor, but he walked without help.

Godfrey counted the soldiers before reporting anything else.

Arnold and Harris were dead. Seven soldiers were wounded badly enough to leave the line; Walter, Ivo, Nicholas and three apprentices also needed treatment.

More than twenty Gruks lay between the wall and the first marker, others fallen beneath arrows or in the ditch. The surviving Orcs were already disappearing north.

"Scouts?" Godfrey asked.

Christopher checked Simon and Adam.

Both were tired from the earlier patrol, but neither was wounded.

"Follow from a distance," Christopher ordered. "No attack. Learn where they go and return if they split."

They collected fresh horses and left before the tracks disappeared beneath new snow.

Dragonwatch’s gate remained open while the soldiers carried their dead home.

Arnold and Harris were buried before the next snowfall.

The graves lay south of Dragonwatch, beyond the fields but within sight of the walls they had defended. The soldiers stood in two lines while Godfrey spoke their names and the places where they had fallen.

"They held when the Uraks reached the wall," he said. "Dragonwatch stands because they did."

Neither man had family at Dragonwatch. Bennet recorded the pay and rewards owed to them; if relatives could be found, the money would be sent rather than returned to the household stores.

After the burial, work resumed.

Men who had stood on the wall paused when an axe struck timber. Children stayed close to the inner buildings, and the hounds barked at every rider approaching the gate. Even the soldiers spoke more quietly while collecting weapons from the field.

The northern wall needed repairs where axes and Aura had broken stone. Blood had frozen along the battlement, and the ditch still held bodies, shattered shields and broken spears.

Godfrey ordered the Orc dead burned beyond the northern marker. The two Urak heads and four Throk heads were preserved for Northgate, and the shaman’s charms, staff and stone bowl went into a locked chest until someone who understood Orc magic could inspect them.

Wat recovered two arbalest bolts. One could be repaired, but the bolt that had struck the shaman’s shield bearer had bent badly behind the head; Barlow kept the metal and discarded the split shaft.

The crossbow crews gathered every usable bolt from the road. Orc arrows went into a separate pile: some could be cut down and fitted again, while others had warped shafts or crude heads useful only as scrap.

Walter ordered fresh shield boards before asking for replacement weapons. Too many shields had split beneath Gruk axes, and the next attack would not wait for Dragonwatch to find perfect timber.

Christopher entered the infirmary.

Walter sat against the wall while Mabel stitched the cut beside his temple. Ivo could hear again from both ears, though the left remained dull, and Nicholas had a shallow cut across one shoulder. Three apprentices carried bruises and minor wounds.

One soldier might lose two fingers; another had a broken thigh. Mabel and her helpers worked between sips of water.

The treatment room became too small before midday. Pallets filled the common hall. Joan directed water and clean cloth without entering Mabel’s way, while Martha kept broth warm for anyone who could swallow it.

Daniel helped carry a wounded soldier into the unused store, which Mabel had turned into an overflow infirmary. His hands shook as he lowered the man onto a pallet. Arnold and Harris had been buried that afternoon; their names remained in Daniel’s thoughts.

Holden waited by the door. "Mabel needs more water."

Daniel nodded and returned to work.

Christopher’s own ribs were deeply bruised. The Urak’s strike had cracked one plate beneath his coat but had not broken the armor.

"Sit," Mabel told him.

"Others were hurt worse than I was."

"They are settled for now. Sit before you fall on one of them."

He sat.

Thunder’s worry pressed against the bond from the first clash. After Mabel wrapped his chest, Christopher went to her.

The hidden gate opened onto mild air and green grass. Thunder waited so close that her head entered the passage before he cleared it.

She smelled blood and damaged armor.

Anger struck him through the bond.

"We won. The walls held and the Orcs retreated."

Thunder pushed her head against his chest and made him wince, drew back at once, then filled his mind with the image of two dead Uraks beneath her claws.

"Godfrey killed one. We killed the other together."

She disliked the word we when it did not include her.

Christopher stayed with her until her anger eased. They completed a brief paired breathing cycle, and he stopped when his ribs began to ache.

When he returned to the surface, the Black Iron prisoner waited under guard in the gatehouse. Walter had returned the chain to one ankle after the counterattack.

Walter gave the report. "He held formation. He killed one Gruk on the wall and helped Bram kill a Throk outside the gate."

Christopher faced the prisoner. "Why did you return?"

"The soldiers returned, my lord. I returned with the line."

"You could have run during the rout."

"Running would have placed the Orcs ahead of me and Dragonwatch behind me." The man lowered his eyes. "I chose to remain with the line, my lord."

Christopher ordered the guard to remove the ankle chain inside the stronghold. The prisoner remained under watch; that night, he slept beside the soldiers while Walter kept the armory key.

The surviving soldiers gathered Alfred in the yard. They asked who had been wounded, whether the gate would hold, and if the Orcs might return.

"The scouts are north," Christopher said. "Keep to the marked roads until they return. Close the gate before dark."

Alfred bowed. "Yes, my lord."

He returned to the soldiers and repeated the orders.

That evening, Walter reviewed the defense with Christopher in the armory. Mabel had bandaged the cut near his temple. The western stair had crowded first, and ammunition had been stored too close to the arbalest frame. Two militia fighters had left their posts when the Uraks landed.

"Do you want them punished for leaving their posts?" Christopher asked.

"No. They came back when we called them," Walter said. "Most had never faced an Urak. We should train them to hold through the first shock."

Owen marked a low stone screen behind the western weapon to shelter the loaders and keep the stair clear. Wat listed the damaged brace and the bolts for repair. They would start after the burial.

Simon and Adam returned on the fourth evening.

Their horses were exhausted, ice covering the ends of their cloaks.

The surviving Orcs had joined others north of the old patrol line. The combined group travelled toward a valley roughly ten days into the Frozen Wastes at mounted speed. Several wounded Gruks had been left behind, and Simon and Adam avoided them rather than revealing the pursuit.

"How many at the camp?" Godfrey asked.

"We did not reach it," Simon said. "We found older supply tracks, sled marks and hunting paths all leading toward the same valley. The survivors knew the route."

Adam placed a rough drawing on the table. "The clan mark matches the one on the carved scraps."

Christopher studied it. "Could they attack again this winter?"

"Not with the force we broke," Godfrey said. "That does not mean the camp is empty."

Godfrey placed one finger on the marked valley. "We need a better count before the clan gathers more fighters."

Christopher studied the map. "At dawn, we decide how many we can spare."