Elf-Boy's Friends 24
Orcs I
by George Gauthier
[The further adventures of characters from the novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends']
Chapter 4. Slashers and Orcs
Six days later the owner of the Sign of the Bow, a worried looking Raymond Bullock sought out the the twins and their friends.
"We have just been warned by a rider from the constabulary that the orcs are on a rampage. No one know what stirred them up but they and the monsters in their service are roaming these mountains and killing anyone they come upon: vacationers, travelers, hunters."
"Monsters? What kind of monsters exactly?" Jemsen asked.
"Dire wolves and slash bears twisted by alchemy and dark magic into demonic creatures who hunt at the side of the orcs."
"Hmmm, those demonic dire wolves are called Trackers. Karel and I have faced them twice before. I've never heard of demonic slash bears though we have battled normal slash bears."
"For convenience let's just call them Slashers." Karel offered.
"OK. Slashers it is."
"That is as good a name as any," a new arrival in the uniform of a Forest Ranger agreed.
"I've met some of you already. For those who don't know me, I am Lord Madden Sexton, a forest ranger in the New Forest on the other side of the mountains. As for the four rangers who with me, the full elf on the left is named Dylan, the half elf standing next to him is Brandon and the two humans are his cousins, the brothers Garret and Lorn. We tracked a pair of murderous orcs to the area but had to break off our pursuit when they joined up with a large force which looked like it was preparing to head this way. I'd estimate they number six hundred.
"That's terrible." Bullock said. "What should we do? Should we evacuate? I'm in the hospitality business and really out of my depth."
"Fair enough, Goodman Bullock and don't think less of yourself for not being a military man. Don't evacuate. You would only be caught all strung out on the road. No, the only thing to do is to fort up here and wait for the Army, though who knows when they might get here."
"No need to guess." Liam offered. "I can communicate with their war and weather wizards via infrasound and find out. Now I cannot reach the capital, but the garrison town of Bled is only sixty odd miles away."
"Good idea. Do so and let me know what they say. Now we have to settle who should take command. What about you? You are in the Army aren't you?"
Liam should his head.
"Mostly in the Navy if the truth were known, but war wizards are warrant officers who do not command troops. Ever."
"Does anyone besides me have any experience commanding troops in battle?"
They all shook their heads. Nathan allowed that he had lead squads of sailors in naval combat but knew nothing about fighting on land. The army major had made his career in the supply corps but had seen action only as an enlisted man before winning his commission.
"All right. I guess that leaves me as the only seasoned commander. You should know that in my day I've lead armies to victory on two continents. It is not for nothing that I was ennobled as the Conquering Lion of Sogdiana. So you are in good hands"
"Now as to arms. I don't suppose you lads brought your weapons along on your vacation."
"Actually we did,"Liam answered, "but remember we ourselves now wield powerful magics. I am a full-fledged war wizard and Jemsen and Karel are earth and air wizards. Corwin Klarendes, that cute blond boy over there, wields ball lightning as both shield and sword."
"The others have lesser capabilities though they too can act as force multipliers and give a good account of themselves in a fight. I recommend we use those with lesser powers to stiffen the defenses at the most vulnerable points. Nathan can snap electrum sparks which is a big help to others in a fight and is a master of the naval cutlass, which is a good weapon in a close quarters melee. Axel Wilde has similar capabilities though he uses a kukri. Axel cannot throw electrum sparks, but he can Call Light to englobe a orc's head. Eike is still waiting for his magical gift to manifest, but has been sparring with us so he too is handy with a blade."
"It's true I don't have magical powers," Eike conceded, "but like the rest of you I am one of those with enhanced physical powers. I am easily twice as strong as I look, and I have stamina and really fast reflexes to match. I even trained with Karel to run with the wind at my back just like Axel and Jemsen so we could take part in ambushes or harassing or spoiling attacks over open ground."
"All right Eike. I'll keep that capability in mind. We just might be able to spring a nasty surprise on the enemy once we whittle them down and get some room for you and Karel to run in." Madden said approvingly. "Glad to see that you are up for a fight. You are a plucky lad for one so much younger than these hooligans you've fallen in with."
Which was said with a wink and a grin.
Then Raymond Bullock said:
"We occasionally drill our staff as an informal militia and we could pass out some extra weapons to any of our guests who are enrolled in their militias at home or are just willing to fight. That might give us sixty fighters armed with spears and shields and short swords or long knives. Orcs may have a longer reach but our spears put us humans even with them on that score. Plus we could distribute all the repeating crossbows to women and teens and station them on the lower balcony. It's too bad though that we have only a couple of dozen bolts per crossbow."
The repeating crossbow was the standard weapon for the militia of the the Commonwealth of the Long River. Almost every adult, male and female, was familiar with the weapon which was lightweight, easy to master, and simple to operate. What it lacked in range it made up for in rate of fire and ease of use. Given a goodly supply of ammunition the militia would confront attackers with hail of quarrels or bolts which could punch through armor.
Madden nodded. "Make it so. I'll post my four rangers and their long bows up there with the crossbow archers My rangers can engage at long range. Save the crossbows and your supply of quarrels for when the enemy closes in. Now about that big bow hung over the bar. With a weapon like that I could take down a Tracker or a Slasher all the way out to tree line."
"Do you really think you could even string that bow much less draw it." Bullock asked skeptically. Madden was a muscular man who stood six feet tall and weighed two hundred fifty pounds, but the bow was made for a giant.
"There is a lot more to Madden than you might think." Dylan offered. "As an enhanced wir wolverine he is as strong as a Frost Giant.
"Let's see, shall we." Madden said confidently. "Drew, if you please."
Drew nodded and Lifted the bow and quiver of arrows from the display on the wall and floated it over to Sexton. In one fluid motion Madden bent and strung the bow, selected an arrow from the quiver, drew the string back to his ear, and shot at the spot on the wall where the bow had hung, driving the shaft deep into the wood with a convincing thunk.
"OK, but we'll need more than just steel against demonic creatures." Jemsen said. "What we need is silver. Silver burns their ensorcelled flesh and keeps their wounds open so that they bleed out. Balandur always applied silver grains suspended in lacquer to his arrowheads. We should do the same. Goodman Bullock, you must have silver handy."
"Of course, but it is all in the form of coin."
"No problem. Remember I am an earth wizard. Earth and rock and minerals and metals do what I tell them to do."
Sure enough, Jemsen stared at the clutch of silver coins Bullock spread on a table, fixing their structure in his mind, then passed his hand over them. The coins disintegrated, slumping into a small pile of powdered silver. The paint shed supplied the lacquer. Soon they had enough silvered lacquer to go around.
It wasn't applied just to the arrowheads but also to the first hand span of the shaft behind the point. The twins, Drew, Axel, Nathan, and Eike applied it to their blades and filled tiny medicament jars with more lacquer for when that first application wore off or maybe washed off with the foul blood of the demonic creatures.
"What about the Klarendes clan? Surely they could destroy the orcs. Liam can get them here via a portal. And what of the druids who live in Elsyion." Drew asked as they tried to figure out what to do to turn the resort into a fortress.
Madden shook his head.
"The druids are in the capital making final preparations for their participation in the conquest of Amazonia. The Klarendes are obligated to protect Elysion, which is by far the most populous settlement in the mountains. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."
"Now let's take a look at the layout of our fortress to be. Goodman Bullock, if you please."
Bullock passed out copies of the map that they handed out to visitors. It showed not only the main house but also the outbuildings like the kitchen, stables, laundry, toolshed, staff quarters, storage etc. It also depicted the well and nearby terrain features which included a stream and a pond.
"Excellent. We'll mark everyone's position on their personal copy of these handy maps."
From the topography and the layout of the place it was clear that the enemy would have only two avenues of approach coming from the north as expected: straight up the road to the entrance of the main house which faced east or from the left rear through a blind spot created by outbuildings including the stable. Toward the south were the pond used for swimming and boating and the ornamental gardens which included two hedge mazes, the smaller for kids and the larger for adults and courting couples.
Madden had the stable and nearby sheds rigged with incendiaries so it could be touched off with fire arrows. With any luck, they could incinerate or at least singe any orcs who sought to infiltrate from that direction using the structures for cover.
They all put their heads together. Jemsen suggested he create bear traps with earth magic. Sexton agreed the idea had merit and marked the map to show where he wanted them. Bullock had the carpenter sharpen stakes to plant in the bottom while he set some of the women to fashioning covers of sticks and cloth and leaves and grass to conceal the openings.
Sexton was pleased to see that they had a secure source of water. The well and ornamental fountain were in the courtyard in the middle of the main house. To deprive the enemy of a reliable supply of water, Sexton had Jemsen invoke his earth magic to reroute the stream and drain the pond. Food was not a problem, not at a well-stocked resort.
Their main disadvantage was that they could muster only about seventy hand to hand fighters plus the women and teens with crossbows against maybe six or seven times as many of the enemy. True the orcs would be out in the open, vulnerable to archers and the twin's earth and air magic and Liams' various magics. Then there were the monsters. The gods forbid they got inside among the defenders.
The key to a successful defense was throwing back the orcs' initial attack. Once the orcs realized that they could not carry the place by storm, they would settle down for a siege, which would work to the advantage of the defenders. Time was on their side.
A withdrawal was unlikely. The object of their attack was undoubtedly to gain control of the road which ran by the resort whether as a jumping off point for further advances or maybe to establish a southern anchor for the lands the orcs wanted to control.
The orcs wouldn't be expecting a vacation resort to harbor three wizards and other magically gifted fighters including a powerful fetcher and a boy who could wield ball lightning. Among the staff and visitors were two older men who could throw lightning bolts, one master of magnetism, and three who could Call Light.
It was in the nature of magic on Haven that the gifts most useful in combat were the province of males. The most common gifts among women were healing, a Green Thumb, the empathic sense, eidetic memory, delving, electrum sparks, and fire starting, the last meaning they could kindle a bonfire or set the fuel in a stove alight but not actually throw flame.
Now some of those gifts could be turned against individual assailants. Healers could deal with attackers one or two at a time -- though not a body of men -- by stopping their hearts or putting them to sleep, or paralyzing their limbs. Calling Light to englobe the head of a rapist would kill him. A handful of electrum sparks snapped to a man's face could blind him.
Delving had an obviously military function in siege warfare to detect attempt to undermine the walls but not directly in combat. Many lady delvers worked as or for civil engineers, architects, and mining engineers or for the public works departments of cities and towns. (All excavation work had to be cleared and foundations checked by a delver.)
Liam was stationed at ground level at the front entrance. At close quarters he would use his telekinesis to wield steel spheres just as Drew did, while also attacking the orcs with weather magic, reserving his white fire for the critical moment during the main assault. With him was an oldster named Baldur who was there with four generations of his family celebrating his proverbial five score and ten. He allowed that as a firecaster his powers had grown weaker, but he could still blunt or divert or disperse streams of flame or clinging balls of fire hurled by enemy firecasters.
Liam was glad to have him at his side. Firecasting was the one gift lacking in his own repertoire. (White fire is a learned skill, not a gift.) So even a elderly firecaster whose powers were waning could employ them defensively to put out fires started by the enemy whether with magic or fire arrows, or perhaps a wagonload of hay rolled against the building.
The only fetcher among the fighters besides Liam and Drew was a plucky fifteen year old named Steen who volunteered to fight though he was just coming into his powers. It took considerable persuasion on Liam's part and on Drew's to get his folks to allow the boy to fight at ground level with his father, instead of shooting a crossbow from the relative safety of the lower balcony alongside his mother.
"Ma, you gotta let me protect Pa with my powers. If he got killed you would never forgive yourself knowing that I might have made the difference. I'd never forgive myself either. Don't lay this burden on either of us."
Steen would carry a shield and a short sword just in case while standing behind the line of defenders whom he would assist by yanking out the eyeballs of foes pressing them hard. Drew also requisitioned a rack of billiard balls for the kid to whirl about just as Drew did with his own steel spheres. The billiard balls were a last resort which Steen would wield to counter a breakthrough, holding the breach long enough for the reaction force to counterattack.
The tool shed held a keg of nails which provided both fetchers ammunition to hurl at the orcs. To make the supply last they would hurl only a handful at a time, targeting clumps of foes rather than use the scatter shot tactics normally used with nails.
Sexton's plan was for a resilient defense with a reserve force reinforcing the defenders on the perimeter wherever it looked like they might crumble and yield to enemy pressure. Corwin's ball lightning would be crucial as he lead counter attacks shielding himself and his reaction force of ten staff militia against any breakthrough. The staff militia were chosen because they were used to working together and knew the layout of the rambling structure.
Nathan was stationed to support those guarding the approach from the blind side. The double handfuls of sparks he could fling would help their amateur fighters hold out against the orc warriors. The burning heat and electric jolt of his sparks were impossible to ignore and would distract the orcs at the critical moment of contact, giving the defenders an inestimable advantage in hand to hand combat.
Sexton commanded the defense from the upper balcony that ran all around the main building. From there he would wield the legendary bow to pick off both enemy commanders and their monsters. Eike was with Sexton on the upper balcony. His job was to peer through a far viewer to identify profitable targets for the wir wolverine's bow.
As a powerful fetcher Drew was a second reaction force all by himself, though for starters he would be on the upper balcony for an overview of the situation. In his role as a reporter for the Capital Intelligencer he kept his note and sketch pads handy. The high vantage point on the upper balcony also allowed the twins to see where best to employ their powers as well as use their bows. Their proximity to Sexton made it easier to coordinate their efforts.
Two younger boys were stationed as runners to carry messages between strong points and the unit leaders Sexton had appointed who included two retired army non-coms and the Army major from the quartermaster corps, all combat veterans.
The carpenter and his assistant who doubled as glaziers removed the glass windows on the ground floor from their frames, covering the bottom half of the openings with room doors nailed to the frames and braced with posts and floor boards or whatever else was handy. This gave the fighters good cover against arrows and the improvised bulwarks could not easily be shoved aside.
The double doors of the main entrance were there to keep the weather out and never intended to withstand an assault. Only an active defense could stop the enemy from pouring through. Bullock had the doors taken down and nailed and propped the long way across the opening. That gave the defenders a chest high bulwark from which to thrust spears at the enemy or slash at them with their long knives.
Bullock passed out the few extra shields to the lucky fighters at the barriers. The rest had to be content with improvised shields made out of barrel heads, cut down floor planks, and the like, reinforced with staves and leather or canvas covers. Eike helped with their fabrication.
"What were you looking at so intently over there?" Sexton asked Jemsen.
"That cliff beyond the pond is loose shale. I think I can bring it down on the orcs if they march along the stretch of ground between the two."
"You have a good eye for terrain, Jemsen. "Wait for my cue. This is a trick we can use only once so we will want to lure as many as possible into the kill zone."
At Karel's suggestion, some of the guests took up shovels to loosen the surface of the ground on the two lines of approach and also carted wheelbarrows of gravel from the road and drive to those spots. The dirt and stones would be ammunition for Karel's whirlwinds and dust devils. Let's see the orc archers try to fire arrows when they had keep their eyes closed against the dust. He also planned just when and where he would raised missile shields made of hardened air.
Karel was reluctant to slay large numbers of troops with a sun mirror, wary of the psychic backlash Count Klarendes had suffered in his youth. Perhaps he could find a clever way to employ one indirectly. Karel had read about an air wizard who boiled the water in a nearby pond then pushed the cloud of superheated steam toward enemy entrenchments, forcing the troops stationed there to withdraw lest they be scalded. Too bad Jemsen had already drained the pond at the resort to deprive the enemy of a source of water. Meanwhile Karel had another idea and sought out the proprietor.
"What are those hollowed out logs we saw in that big shed?" Karel asked Rayburn Bullock.
"Wooden pipe for a storm drain we were about to lay to help drain that soggy ground on the south end. The sections are shaped to fit together to make a continuous channel. We used wood because it is available locally and does not crack like pottery or corrode like metal pipe."
That gave Karel an idea. He wasn't sure it would work but he enlisted Eike's mechanical talents and a couple of Bullock's men to join a dozen sections of wood pipe into six tubes and block one end of each tube with a wooden plug tamped into the end that would face the enemy. The workmen set the six tubes in low mounds of earth Jemsen raised with earth magic. He then rolled small boulders on top to anchor them in place.
"I still think your contraption looks backwards" Eike said. "Folks are gonna wonder what good are tubes pointed at us rather than toward the enemy?"
"Trust me. If my air guns work, the effect will be devastating. Now I don't want to over-promise so let's leave it there for now."
"Guns?"
"It's an old word for a tube weapon which somehow shot lead bullets like those used by slingers. I read about them in old stories. The trouble is their authors assumed their readers would know how guns worked. So they provided no technical specifics other than mentioning smoke."
Karel charged each tube or gun with several pounds of nails and any scrap metal he could lay his hands on such as nuts and bolts, pins from door hinges, saddle fittings, and the like. The plan was that when the orcs made their initial charge he would direct jets of air into the open ends of the pipe. The plug would resist long enough to let the pressure build up. When the plug finally gave away, the blast of air would propel all the loose metal at great speed against the orcs [like grapeshot fired from a gunpowder cannon]. Against troops in the open, the storm of metal should be devastating. Their main limitation was suitable ammunition, not propellant of which there was a virtually infinite supply.
Just then their scouts Garret and Lorn ran up to report that the enemy was close, no more than a mile away. It was time for everyone to stand to at his position marked on his personal map and await the attack. Liam reported that the Army was on the way but it would take time to traverse the sixty-four miles from Bled to the resort. There was no war wizard or druid available to open a space portal for them. So the next move was up to the orcs.
Chapter 5. Battle is Joined
As the horde of orcs emerged from the woods and deployed into a line of battle, Drew focused his gift on the southern corrals. Lifting the top two bars from the enclosing fences on the far side he let the draft horses and mounts escape from the advancing Trackers and Slashers. The escape of the horses would deprive the enemy of both cavalry mounts and a food supply for their monsters.
Though the demonic animals started after the equines, their masters called them back. Their job that day was to terrorize and fight, not to hunt. The animals obeyed snarling their displeasure at the escape of their prey. Well there was plenty of meat on the bones of humans and elves and dwarves forted up in the buildings in front of them. For now the beasts had to content themselves with two laggards caught while returning from a call of nature between the staff latrines and the main house. A slasher disemboweled one man with a swipe of his massive paw while trackers literally tore a man limb from limb.
The orcs themselves were not cannibals but their thoughts too were bloodthirsty. How dare a bunch of human and elven holiday makers defy them! They would pay for their effrontery. The orcs had historic rights to the eastern mountains. It was long past time for the orcs to reclaim their stolen lands.
The orcs were all infantry armed mostly with lethal looking long hafted maces with spiked or flanged heads and large round shields though they also had a corps of crossbowmen and slingers. For magical support they had half a dozen mages. Two of the orc mages were firecasters, one threw lightning bolts, one could control magnetism and two could snap electrum sparks. As a race orcs were magically weak. Occasional individuals might have a strong gift though only a single gift -- not multiple gifts like the Commonwealth's own war wizards. Orcs were ever shape shifters or druids either. So magically they were completely outclassed by the defenders as they soon found out.
Having shaken themselves out into a battle line, the orcs sent their monsters forward both to terrify their foes and to clear their flanks of any enemy bowmen lurking in ambush in the outbuildings or gardens. As luck would have it fully one-third of the fifteen slashers and a half-dozen trackers fell into camouflaged bear pits. Sharpened stakes at the bottom their points coated with silver penetrated their vitals bringing horrid howls from the stricken beasts. Those losses still left a half-score slashers and half again that many trackers.
Then the big archer on the upper balcony got to work with his recurved bow which propelled arrows far beyond normal range. The crossbows of the orcs could not reach his position on the balcony, so he could shoot at them with impunity.
Moreover Sexton's arrows were coated with silver which drew more howls from the demonic beasts, reducing the numbers of both species by a third. Their masters set the remaining monsters to patrolling a wide perimeter around the resort to make sure none of the humans and elves could escape though the twins managed to sink shafts into several who got too close. Aside from that, their part in the battle was over.
A firecaster tried lofting a ball of fire at the distant balcony but Karel called a jet of air to divert it to the drained pond. The bolt of the orcs' lightning thrower fell short by a good margin. So much for orc magic, at least at that distance.
Meanwhile Eike had been watching for leaders among the orcs and realized that their commanders wore distinctive green sashes to indicate their rank. He told Sexton who shifted his aim to the enemy commanders who were too proud to carry shields like an ordinary soldier. After three commanders fell to his arrows, the enemy withdrew temporarily into the tree line. When they re-emerged, no one sported a green sash, and everyone in front held a shield.
"Good work spotting their leaders, Eike. Too bad I could not pick off more than those three before they realized the threat I presented to them with this powerful bow."
"Anyway now Goodman Bullock will have a true story to tell about how a mighty hero wielded this signature bow against the orcs."
Eike nodded and grinned, proud to have been a part of the first strike at their enemies. Meanwhile Drew was busy sketching the scene. These quick sketches were to refresh his memory when he produced finished sketches for his news-paper and a possible book, should they all live so long.
The only sour note was that with the enemy force out in the open, Sexton could see that they numbered closer to eight hundred than the six hundred of his first estimate. Their infantry advanced in three lines behind a line of skirmishers who probed with long poles for further bear traps. Bypassing the pitfalls, they advanced over open ground toward the main entrance of the resort, hoping for force their way inside.
Karel's air guns proved to be a disappointment. The wooden plugs gave way a little too soon so the force behind the "grapeshot" they hurled at the orcs was weak, hitting only hard enough to wound some orcs in the front ranks.
"I still think the concept is sound, but the technique obviously needs work." Karel admitted to Eike.
Now Madden Sexton had walked the lower balcony earlier, assuring his own archers that they had nothing to fear from enemy crossbowmen. The air wizard Sir Karel would raise a shield of hardened air over them or rather just above and slanting back to the rear of the enemy spearmen. That way, their own archers could shoot under the shield while the arrows launched by the orc archers would bounce off the top.
That was why the women and kids should not target the enemy archers, only the close-packed infantry below. Their heavy wooden shields could not protect them simultaneously from spears and swords stabbing at their front and quarrels shot from above.
Sexton admitted that the defenders were outnumbered overall, but not by the orcs at the line of contact. There was room for only so many fighters in the limited spaces at the window and door openings.
Which was why the attempt by the orcs to rush the main entrance failed. Their archers started to fire as soon as they came in range but the dust and gravel thrown about by Karel's dust devils and whirlwinds made it impossible to aim straight. The winds fell away as the archers moved up behind their own infantry. Karel set an impenetrable shield of hardened air just above the massed orc infantry, blocking the flight of their arrows. The orc archers were thus completely neutralized. Not so the defending archers, women and teens, on the lower balcony who rained death on the bunched up infantry below while their menfolk fought them with spears at ground level.
Young Steen came into his own then, helping the defenders by yanking orc eyeballs out of their sockets, making the attackers easy to kill. Father and son came through the battle unscathed, their clothes splashed with blood but none of it their own, much to the relief of not only the mother but also Drew who had endorsed the boy's desire to fight beside his father.
Goodman Bullock snapped electrum sparks at the orcs with similar results. Bullock's friend Edmond, the textile magnate, gave orcs heart attacks with his weak lightning bolts or made their arms go numb at just the worst moment for them while engaged in close combat. Axel and the others with his gift scrambled orc brains by Calling Light and englobing their heads.
With his mastery of magnetism, an orc disarmed a pair of defenders by yanking their blades out of their hands. Raising their shields to fend off his mace, they fell back. Axel stepped into the breach, his ensorcelled amulet nullifying the orc's control of magnetism, allowing Axel to thrust his blade into the orc's belly and slash downward, spilling his guts. The orc died with a puzzled look on his face, not understanding why his magic had suddenly failed him.
Axel continued fighting with his kukri stabbing, and slashing, and thrusting, relying on his speed and reflexes to keep him safe though he did take a nasty cut on his left shoulder, a salutary reminder that his amulet shielded him from direct attack by magic but offered no protection at all against conventional weapons.
Having come into range the single orc who could throw lightning bolts targeted the weapons of the defenders knowing that steel was an excellent conductor of electricity. The orc felt safe from crossbow quarrels and arrows behind a heavy wooden shield, but Sexton had prepared a few special arrows for just such an eventuality coating the points of the arrows with a bit of Aodh's poison. His arrow penetrated the orc's shield deep to scratch his arm, a negligible wound in other circumstances, but the poison was deadly. The stricken orc rolled on the ground howling, begging for a quick death from his comrades.
Orc firecasters directed streams of flames at the wooden walls of the resort, but Old Baldur, as Drew would dub him in his reporting, diverted them into the ground or even better into the mass of orc infantry. At one point he drained the heat out of a pair of giant fireballs passing over the infantry and aimed at window openings. Had the fireballs made it inside, they would have set off a conflagration. Instead Old Badlur snuffed them out and directed the heat energy into the bodies of a clutch of orc fighters, flash boiling their bodily fluids and making then explode messily. At the limit of his strength he was escorted away to a couch to rest and recoup for later.
Sensing the morale of the attackers was failing, Liam cut loose with a stream of white fire. Giving it everything he had, he swept it from right to left cutting two hundred orcs in half, leaving their grisly corpses smoking evilly.
That did it. The orcs panicked and ran from the field and into the woods though late arriving reinforcements brought their flight to a halt before they had gone very far. Their officers rallied the orcs for a second try. This time the focus would be the blind spot in the rear, but the orcs would also launch a simultaneous attack on the front.
"Are my eyes playing tricks on me," Drew asked a while later, "or are there now more orcs than before we killed more than three hundred of them."
"Reinforcements." Sexton said shaking his head. "Bad news. It looks like the orcs are not going to settle down for a siege, as I had counted on them doing once we broke their attempt to storm our position. And here we have shot off most of our quarrels."
He gave orders for nimble boys to run outside and retrieve quarrels stuck in the walls or even in the bodies of the fallen, which refilled their quivers twice over.
Meanwhile their single magical healer concentrated her powers on the less seriously wounded who might return to the fighting line rather than expend her strength on the most seriously wounded, which was one of the cruel choices war forced on good people. Two patients died before the magical healer could tend to them.
A chirurgeon and an herbalist plus Axel did what they could for the rest with their skills in natural medicine. Though Axel was an experienced combat medic he had left his medic's pack at home so he had to improvise with bandages torn from pillowcases, splints from dowels, and poultices made from herbs. The butcher's bill was heavy for so small a force as the defenders had mustered: eight dead and twice that many wounded though most of them including Axel and Goodman Bullock were able to return to the fight.
Chapter 6. Finale
"This time, with their larger numbers, the orcs will hit us from all sides at once: in front, in the blind spot, and maybe even work a column around the pond and past that cliff, though the gardens the mazes partly block that approach. Three attacks at once. I am not sure we can hold out till the army gets here. Liam what can you tell us on that score?"
"Good news. The army did not send cavalry but mounted infantry."
"How is that good news? Horses are still horses whether for mere transport or for shock effect in a charge. You can push them only so hard before they founder. So they won't reach us till tomorrow morning or midnight if they push on after dark."
"Ah, but these soldiers are mounted on bicycles. Unlike horses their mounts do not have to stop and graze or move at a trot [the gait horses used to cover long distances]. With the infantry is a contingent from the army air corps riding tandem bikes and pulling trailers bearing their yokes and ammunition. They should reach us just about the time the enemy launches their second attempt to storm our defenses."
"So they can fall on the enemy from behind. Excellent! You see Eike, your wire wheels have made this possible, something I am sure Drew Altair will not fail to mention in his coverage of our battle."
"Good for you, Eike," the others avowed. Sexton continued with:
"I don't mind admitting now that I wasn't sure we could hold out long enough. Now I am hopeful that we can. For the next couple of hours we must exert our magical powers to the utmost. Jemsen, get ready to bring that shale cliff down on their third column. Liam, what can you do for us besides whirling steel balls and white fire?"
"As you know I won't be able to throw white fire again till tomorrow, but I am also a powerful weather wizard. Their attack will come late in the afternoon, the perfect time for me to whistle up a monster of a thunderstorm, which will be most effective in the open area to our front."
"Good. Karel, this time protect those with crossbows on our blind side with your shield of hardened air. We'll have reposition some of our archers from the front. Drew I want you stationed at ground level, to back up Corwin and his reaction force. Those with lesser gifts like sparks and globes of light are doing a fine job right where they are."
"Oh, and what about you, Baldur. You were looking pretty wrung out earlier."
"I'm still tired but recovered enough to torch the outbuildings in our blind spot. Just tell me when."
"Good man! Gentlemen, to your posts."
Liam stopped the attack at the front of the resort with his monster thunderstorm. He pummeled the orcs with hail the size of hen's eggs. Torrential rains wet and loosened their bow strings, while volleys of lightning bolts flashed from the sky to strike the orcs dead, all of which was accompanied by the crash of thunder suggestive of the wrath of the gods to their superstitious minds.
Liam couldn't help thinking they could really have used Finn Ragnarson's help. In his capacity as an avatar of Thor, thunder god of the Norse, Finn was the personification of shock and awe.
For a finale Liam had a whirling funnel drop from the dark clouds to form a tornado forty paces wide at the base which churned through the orc formation, drawing scores of warriors into the sky only to spit them out to fall back to the ground.
Afterwards Liam slumped back, drained by his repeated efforts.
Taking up the slack, Jemsen invoked his earth magic, tapping the water table to turn the final open stretch into a quagmire. It wasn't impassable but none of the orcs cared to fight with feet planted in slippery and clinging mud where any kind of footwork was impossible. So the attack on the front faltered and the remaining orcs withdrew in confusion about what to do next.
Jemen destroyed the column that was threading the narrow stretch of solid ground on the far side of the now drained pond and the base of the shale cliff. His earthquake shook the shale loose and sent the entire slope crashing down onto the hapless orc warriors, killing over two hundred. So much for the second attack.
In the blind spot, Old Baldur torched the outbuildings the orcs were trying to use for cover and threw a couple of clinging balls of fire into the mass of attackers for good measure. Since the outbuildings had been rigged with incendiaries, they burned merrily. Though the fires caught relatively few of the enemy, the flames drove them into the open and backlit them for the defending archers who included Sexton and his four rangers with their long bows. Karel helped by sending whirlwinds to fling burning embers at the enemy force.
Three of the rangers fired their long bows from behind room doors propped against the railing. Garret and Lorn sheltered behind a a large shield Eike had knocked together from floor planks, a shield wide enough to protect all three of them. Thanks to his doubled strength he could shift the shield to wherever Garret and Lorn needed it.
By this time the enemy had drawn so close that Karel's air shield could not provide total coverage. An unlucky shot slipped under the bottom of Eike's shield and struck his left calf. Lorn pulled the shaft all the way through his flesh and Garret summoned Axel to patch him up.
Pressing their attack the enemy column did reach the walls and forced their way into a rear corridor and adjoining rooms only to be met by Corwin and his reaction force, ten staff members who had the advantage of knowing the complex layout of the rambling structure. They ducked into servant runs and through concealed doors to adjoining rooms only to pop up on the flanks of the enemy column. The orcs never knew where they would come from.
But it was Corwin's ball lightning and Drew's deadly steel spheres that broke the resolve of the orcs to press their attack. How could an orc armed with a sword cope with a ball of lighting three feet wide, which hummed and crackled menacingly till it zipped forward to deliver a fatal jolt to a warrior and burn him to a crisp at the same time?
Nor could the orcs deal with steel spheres the size of peaches which whirled about and crashed through shields and armor and bodies and especially heads. Drew also happily yanked eyeballs left and right a crazed grin on his face, a psychological trick he had learned from Sexton to disconcert opponents. Some orcs hurled throwing knives at the diminutive redhead which were returned to sender thanks to the young fetcher's Missile Shield, a tactic that really dismayed orc fighters.
The fight at the rear of the resort went back and forth till when Madden Sexton brought reinforcements, ten fighters taken from the quiet sector out front, to back up Drew and the reaction force under Corwin. that made more than forty fighters battling the orcs out back counting Sexton's ten and Corwin's ten man reaction force plus those originally stationed there. That was very few compared to several hundred attackers but the enemy could get only so many of their fighters through the rear doorway and window openings they had forced.
Fighting in his human form Sexton flung half a dozen throwing stars then waded into the fight armed with an ironwood buckler with a steel boss in the middle and quite an unusual weapon, a morning star. A variant of a flail only with a spiked steel ball attached by a chain to a wooden handle the morning star could inflict blunt-force trauma as well as nasty puncture wounds and lacerations.
Sexton's attack fell upon the intruders like a whirlwind of death. Swung by a man with the strength of a Frost Giant, the morning star could take an orc's head off or splash his brains all over his comrades, a tactic Sexton relished for its demoralizing effect. Equally demoralizing was when a flip of his wrist wrapped the chain of his weapon around the haft of an orc mace, letting Sexton yank it right out of the hapless fighter's grip.
After a while there came an unintended pause in the furious struggle, the result of the tempo of fighting falling off everywhere from sheer fatigue. Hand to hand combat is exhausting. Standing only a few paces apart the two sides confronted each other, the orcs suddenly uncertain, the defenders filled with hope at the news Liam shouted that the army was almost there.
With the other fighters flanking them, Corwin positioned his globes up front as shields, Drew twirled his steel spheres in mid air, while Sexton planted himself in the middle looking like a demigod of death, his muscular form covered in blood and brains and gore casually swinging his morning star. Glaring at the orcs he asked:
"Well? Are you going to wait around for the Army to get here or take off?"
The demoralized orcs answered with actions rather than words as they pushed and shoved to get back out through the window openings and door they had entered by. That put them in the open, perfect targets for aerial attack. With Karel's thunderstorm dispersed the skies were clear for a flight of six air corps flyers to drop fire globes on the orcs facing the blind spot. The fliers veered off only to return moments later with another load of bombs and another after that.
Meanwhile five hundred Commonwealth dismounted infantry, refreshed from a brief rest after their long ride, fell upon the bedraggled orc warriors milling around out front. With fresh troops pitted against exhausted fighters, the result was a slaughter.
The Army eventually rounded up about two hundred prisoners, all that was left of an orc force that must have originally totaled more than a thousand. They were put to work dragging the bodies on the far side of the property and dropping them in mass graves which Jemsen opened with earth magic. Once the holes were filled, the earth surged once again to cover them with ten feet of soil.
The Army officer in command of the rescue force met Sexton and the others leaders in a conference room.
"So tell us Colonel Danzig what stirred the orcs up that they would attack peaceable neighbors they had done business with for years?" Bullock wanted to know.
Colonel Danzig shrugged. "From early interrogations I can only tell you that the orcs thought this was the right moment to assert their historic rights to the lands unjustly taken from them during the Formation Wars by mass armies of humans, giants, elves, and dwarves, the main races in today's Commonwealth."
"Well, I suppose I can understand their grievance, but why attack us now?. Why couldn't they see how pointless it was to try to change the verdict of history at this late date." Bullock said.
"They don't read our news--papers, but had heard from traders about how the Commonwealth is overstretched, with a field army stationed in the Far West and two more mustering for the invasion of Amazonia plus sizable garrisons in New Varangia and the Western Plains, deployments which have diminished the field armies left in the Commonwealth proper. Also they know that even at full strength our field armies these days are much smaller than those which overwhelmed them during the Formation Wars. They were sure that this time their terrain advantage would defeat our much smaller armies."
The guest who was an Army major snorted.
"Our armies today may be fewer in number but are actually more powerful than any we mustered in the old days. We have better weapons now like fire globes which turn slingers into junior firecasters, swords and sabers made from superior steel, and repeating crossbows. We also have officers trained at military academies and mid-career professional schools and a solid corps of long-serving non-commissioned officers. Our cavalry hits much harder today thanks to stirrups and better saddles. We have strategic mobility with space portals and tactical mobility with these new bicycles."
"And then there is magic. We now have more than just an occasional war wizard for magical support. We have a dedicated corps of firecasters and lightning throwers, and fetchers and masters of magnetism, and weather wizards. The orcs' own mages were few and weak and no match for even a chance collection of wizards on vacation much less those assigned one of our field armies. And then there is our air corps which let the relief force send aerial scouts before their attack while the orcs had no aerial reconnaissance aloft to spot the approach of the army column."
"Instead of their expected victory they found defeat at the hands of a mix of vacationers, resort staff, forest rangers, and wizards who happened to be here on vacation who held out for hours against a thousand of their warriors. Nor do these orcs have any concept of the power of a state that covers the middle of the continent of Valentia, dominates the the Great Inland Freshwater Sea, and numbers one hundred-twenty millions against perhaps a hundred thousand orcs in the Eastern Mountains."
"The orcs will learn to their regret that Commonwealth does not start trouble, but always ends it on our terms. This time, unlike during the Formation Wars, we will totally expunge this colony of orcs. An infestation is a better name for it."
"You contemplate genocide?" Axel asked.
"I hope not. I'd prefer that the orcs go into exile among their kinfolk who live in the lands of the eastern barbarians far from our borders, not for mercy's sake but to spare the lives of our own soldiers who would fall in a fight to the finish."
"What shall we do about the monsters still on the loose?" Bullock asked, explaining to the colonel about the Slashers and Trackers.
"Don't worry about them. I'll kill the monsters myself." Sexton offered. "Without their handlers they are scattered, disorganized, and confused. I can confront them one or a few at a time using myself as bait."
"How can that work?" Colonel Danzig asked.
"Simple, I am a shapeshifter -- a wir wolverine easily as strong as a Frost Giant. I once killed a white bear of the polar isles and that was before the Great Forest enhanced my physical powers. Besides, for this job I will coat my claws with a deadly poison. One scratch on a Slasher's snout will take a his mind off attack. He will be able to think only of pain in the short time he has left before I blind him and tear out his throat."
That evening and for the next three nights after that, Sexton morphed into his wolverine form. Axel brushed his claws with the fluid extracted from the poison glands in the paws of Aodh his fellow wir and forest ranger, careful to keep any of it from touching his skin. As a wir himself Sexton was immune.
Despite the fact that both moons were down and there were only stars in the sky for illumination, Sexton's four nightly hunts were successful thanks in part to his superior night vision. He couldn't just see in dim light like a cat, he could see into the infrared and detect the body heat of foes even when concealed by a screen of shrubbery.
Most of his fights were one on one, but twice Sexton battled small packs of trackers and once a pair of slashers. All told he killed eight Slashers and a dozen Trackers. His transformative magic healed the hurts he took in his fights. After two fruitless hunts, Sexton concluded that the threat had passed though perhaps a monster or two lurked in the woods.
Eventually Madden Sexton and his four rangers, Dylan the elf, Brandon the half-elf, and his two fully human cousins, the brothers Garret and Lorn, returned to the New Forest, keeping an eye peeled for orcs. This war was just getting started.
For their own safety the vacationers and staff were evacuated to the town of Bled. From there they could find passage home. Before they left Drew cautioned the youth Steen not to try flying till his powers were full developed and only then under the guidance of a experienced flyer. Steen's dad said he would make sure of it.
For the time being, the army would use the resort as an army base as they maneuvered to counter the orcs. Bullock was unhappy with shutting his business during the emergency but he consoled himself with the thought that the Army would lease his premises rather than just requisition the property. That wouldn't entirely cover the damage or the loss of business, but at least Bullock did not have to give refunds to his customers, citing the long standing legal rule about unforeseeable and uncontrollable circumstances.
As for the eight vacationers, it was time for them to return to the capital. Drew had articles to write and sketches to finish for the Capital Intelligencer. Later he would start on that book about the mighty deeds Madden Sexton had always hinted at. If this battle was a fair example of his deeds Drew suspected the man had some great stories to tell. As for the rest of them, Nathan and Liam were about due to travel to Alster. Axel would resume his duties as Sir Willet's aide. And so forth.
"Next time Drew complains about the heat in the capital," Karel began, "let's just lock him in an ice-house till he comes to his senses. We shall entertain no more of his notions of trips to the cool air in the mountains."
"Amen" Jemsen affirmed.
"It so happens that I will soon join the expedition to Amazonia." the auburn-haired journalist retorted. "I understand the climate there is cooler since the Amazon basin is farther from the Equator. Anyway I expect you all will join me there sooner or later, except our journeyman naval architect whose duties and career will keep him in the capital.
"Gosh, after this adventure, that's going to make me feel totally left out." Eike said. "I envy you your powerful gifts which make you an asset in a fight.
"Don't fret." Nathan assured him. "Your own gift will manifest in time and likely fairly soon. Remember you are much the youngest of us except for Corwin. Either way, gift or not, together or apart, you will always be a member of this circle of friends."
Eike nodded and smiled, warmed by the presence and support of his friends and lovers.
Author's Note
This story is entirely fictional, with no resemblance intended to any person living or dead.
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This story is one of an occasional series about the further adventures of the characters introduced in the fantasy novel 'Elf-Boy and Friends' and published by Nifty Archive. The chief protagonist of the novel, Dahlderon, elf-boy and druid, will appear in these stories in a supporting rather than starring role. Each story in the sequence stands on its own, with the focus on one or a few of the original characters.
Readers who like these stories might want to try my two series 'Daphne Boy' and 'Naked Prey' in the Gay/Historical section of the Archive. My 'Jungle Boy' series of Hollywood tales is posted in the Gay/Authoritarian section. The recent series 'Andrew Jackson High' relates the trials and tribulations of five of its gay students. For links to these and other stories, look on the list of Prolific Authors on the Archive.