CHAPTER EIGHT.

24 Uktar, the Year of Lightning Storms Abelar and Regg, leading the company atop Swiftdawn and Firstlight, crested the rise and saw it first. Abelar raised his hand for a halt and the whole of his force came to a stop along the rise. Only the soft c.h.i.n.k of metal and the occasional whicker of a mount broke the silence. All eyes looked below them on the plain.

Perhaps three long bowshots in the distance, a force of cavalry rode. They numbered perhaps twice that of Abelar's company. Abelar could not make out their standard but he noted the color of their tabards-Ordulin's green.

A murmur moved through the men. Horses pawed the ground, snorted. Armor c.h.i.n.ked as men shifted in their saddles.

"The sun sets and rises, Abelar." Regg said, a sharp edge in his tone.

"That it does."

Regg said, "They are many to our few. Twice us, I'd say, but not the thousand we'd heard. What are they doing out here, I wonder?"

Abelar knew the answer. "Forrin split his force to cut off retreat from Saerb. They're angling around from the south. The rest of the army is. .h.i.tting Saerb directly from the east."

"Forrin cannot be far from Saerb, then," Regg said. "Two days away, maybe three."

Abelar nodded. "Get the standards up and sound a blast. Let them know we are here."

Regg issued the order and the two standard bearers unfurled their pennons. Each showed a field of white adorned with a red rose for faith, a sun for light, and a boar rampant for strength. When the standards were up, the company's trumpets sounded and their clarion carried over the plains.

Heads and horses in Ordulin's company wheeled around. Fingers and blades pointed back at Abelar's forces. Ordulin's commanders put their boot heels into their mounts and moved briskly among the squads, pointing and shouting. Their shouts carried faintly over the plains. Men and horses reversed formation and began to form up into an arc concave to Abelar's men.

"They see us, I think," Regg said with a grin.

"That they do."

Regg said, "All medium cavalry. I see crossbows but no ma.s.sed archers."

"Nor I," Abelar said. The battle would be fought with blades, up close. He pointed to a pair of unarmored men among the forces. "But see there? Wizards. They probably have a few priests in their number as well."

"Agreed. The wizards are to their advantage. But battles are won by flesh and steel, not spells. So it has been ever."

Abelar nodded. "Put us into a loose line. We advance with flanks lagging."

"Advance?"

Abelar nodded, his eyes on his enemy.

Regg shouted the order and the company moved into position. Sergeants shouted commands; horses neighed; men adjusted armor and shields.

Abelar watched his foes as they took formation. They moved with discipline, even skill. He figured many of them to be onetime members of Forrin's Blades, experienced men, but dark hearted from all he'd heard.

He called his cadre of six priests to him. Each wore a breastplate over mail and bore a round steel shield enameled with Lathander's rose. Led by Roen, they formed a semicircle around Abelar as Ordulin's trumpets blared below. He looked each of them in the eye. Despite their limited experience, he saw only resolve there. The Light was in them.

"They have spellcasters in their force," he said. "We will advance loose, flanks lagging. The casters will try to hit us as we close. Stay in the pocket behind us and watch for their casters."

"Not hard for Roen to look over the line," Jiiris said, grinning. "He sits the saddle as tall as an ogre."

The priests laughed. Abelar smiled and continued. "Do whatever you can to disrupt their spells. Once we're engaged, the casters will matter little."

"We will counter them, Commander," Roen said, and the others nodded.

"I know," Abelar said, and meant it. "Stay in the light."

He clasped each of their forearms in turn, holding Jiiris's a beat longer than the others, and they rode off to take their positions behind the line.

Abelar took a final glance at Ordulin's forces. Regg rode up beside him.

"I wonder if Forrin is among them?" Regg asked.

"Doubtful," Abelar answered.

Regg nodded agreement. He said, "The men are ready. They should hear from you."

Abelar took his eyes off Ordulin's forces. The time had come to rally his men. He held up his shield so it caught the sunlight and shimmered. Regg did the same. As one, they offered a supplication to Lathander. When they completed their spells, their shields held the sun's glow and hummed with power. They clasped forearms.

"Stay in the light," Regg said, and grinned.

"And you," Abelar answered, and did not grin.

Ordulin's forces sounded a series of trumpet blasts and the cavalrymen gave a great shout.

Regg rode along behind the line of Abelar's men, shield blazing. He thumped men and women on the back and offered quiet words of encouragement. Abelar took position before the line and faced the company.

A wall of flesh and steel extended to either side of him for three hundred paces. He saw Roen's head in the rear, flanked by his fellow priests. Helms and blades caught the sun and glittered in the light. But for Regg's soft words and the flapping of the standards in the wind, silence fell.

All eyes were on Abelar, hard eyes, but eyes filled with faith. He had chosen the men and women of his company well. They were good soldiers. More importantly, they were good men and women.

For a time he said nothing. He simply rode along the line, making eye contact with the men and women who had chosen to trust him with their lives. He wanted them to see his strength of faith, his conviction of purpose.

They did. Some saluted; some nodded. None looked away. He returned to the center of the line and said, "The Morninglord's light shine on you all."

"And on you," they boomed as one.

Abelar turned Swiftdawn and gestured with his shield at Ordulin's forces. "Look out on them. See their souls. Know them for what they are."

He stared down for a moment at Ordulin's cavalry, which was finalizing its formation, before turning back to his own company. "Know that their purpose was to cut off retreat from Saerb, to murder families as they fled another army that approaches from the east."

Looks hardened. Men shifted in their saddles. Horses whinnied.

"This day, right now, they fail of that purpose."

As one, the company shouted a.s.sent.

Behind Abelar, Ordulin's trumpets blared. The men of Forrin's army let up a shout of their own and Abelar heard them start forward. Abelar kept his eyes on his own warriors. They kept their eyes on him.

"To a man, they are in service to a base cause, an evil cause, whereas we ..." he paused and looked up at the sunlit sky before looking back at his command. "We serve a n.o.ble purpose, a higher calling, and the Light is in every man and woman in this company."

He held up his blade and willed it to flare. It luminesced white hot, overwhelming even the glow of his shield, casting the entire company in its radiance.

His men cheered, raised their own blades.

Abelar turned Swiftdawn to look at the advancing enemy. Ordulin's forces were moving at a hustle, and slowly gathering speed. They advanced in a concave formation, flanks curved and leading. A few crossbows tw.a.n.ged. A dozen bolts slit the air and rained down on the company. Shields and armor turned them all.

Abelar turned to face his men.

"Regg observes that they are many, while we are but few. To that I say, aye. The many are always willing to do evil. The few make a stand in the light." He looked up and down his line. "Today we, all of us, make our stand in the light."

His company again shouted a.s.sent, but Abelar was not done. "So, aye," he said. "They are are many. And we are few. Aye." many. And we are few. Aye."

He urged Swiftdawn into a trot and paced the line, repeating the phrase, giving it a rhythm. He thumped his glowing blade on his glowing shield. "They are many, we are few. They are many, we are few."

Regg echoed his gesture and took up the chant. Roen and the priests in the rear did the same. Soon the entire company was thundering the words, rhythmically beating sword to shield.

"They are many! We are few! They are many! We are few!"

Abelar inhaled deeply as the fire rooted in his gut, as his hands transformed from those of a healer to those of a warrior, as a surge of righteous wrath filled his breast so strongly it felt as if it would lift him from his saddle and propel him to the heavens. He turned to face Ordulin's forces, raised his blade, and shouted defiance.

His wrath spread like contagion to his men and they echoed his shout.

Ordulin's cavalry moved from a trot to a full gallop. They bore down on Abelar's company, blades and shields ready, blood on their minds.

Abelar intoned a prayer to Lathander and channeled the strength of his soul into his blade, which glowed still brighter. He was bathed in light. His company moved restlessly behind him, eager to receive the order. He held his blade up.

"The path is lit, brothers and sisters! Ride!"

The clarions blared, the soldiers roared, and the entire line lurched as one down the rise.

Abelar led them, bent over Swiftdawn, blade held before him. The standard bearers flanked him, pennons whipping in the breeze. The wind whistled over his helm. His shield and blade hummed in his hands. The thunder of hooves could not drown out the chant of his men.

"They are many! We are few! They are many! We are few!"

The chant propelled him forward. Their faith strengthened him. He was spirit, as light as the wind.

Ordulin's men let out a shout as the distance between the two onrushing forces shrank. Abelar eyed the men at the forefront of Ordulin's charge. One of them bore an axe rather than a sword. The man wore no helm and his long hair flew behind him. A symbol decorated his shield: a lightning bolt, the symbol of Talos the Thunderer, the dark G.o.d of destruction and storms.

"Ride!" Abelar shouted to his men, and gave Swiftdawn her head. She snorted and ran like the wind, pulling ahead of even the standard bearers.

"Xoren and Trewe, stay on me!" he shouted to the standard bearers. They nodded and he held his blade aloft, letting its light signify the wrath of his G.o.d and bolster the courage of his men. He would be the spear point. He lowered his blade and pointed its tip at the Tala.s.san, leaving no doubt of his intent.

The Tala.s.san saw the gesture and snarled. The wild-eyed priest stuck out his palm and a bolt of blue lightning shot from it at Abelar. Abelar intercepted it with his enspelled shield and deflected the bolt into the ground, where it scorched the gra.s.s and threw up a divot of earth.

Seventy paces separated the forces.

"They are many!"

In the rear of Ordulin's forces, Abelar saw not two but three wizards incanting spells from horseback. As he watched, one of the wizards suddenly went rigid, as still as a statue, and his mount slowed, bucked, and threw him. Beside another, a rosy-hued long sword appeared in mid-air, slashed downward, and severed a hand.

Abelar shouted Lathander's praises. Roen and his priests were doing exactly as he'd asked.

Fifty paces.

The third wizard completed his spell and a clap of thunder boomed near Abelar. Men screamed. A few horses whinnied in terror, bucked, and threw their riders. One of Abelar's standard bearers, Xoren, covered his ears and lost his saddle. Abelar did not slow. He hoped that Roen and his priests could see to the fallen.

Thirty paces.

"We are few!"

Ordulin's men shouted in answer. Their line stretched out well beyond Abelar's flanks. They would collapse around Abelar's force and try to encircle his company.

Abelar would not have it. He would drive his company right through them and out the other side. He angled Swiftdawn for the Tala.s.san and the Tala.s.san answered in kind.

Ten paces.

Hooves thundered. Men roared. Abelar held the Tala.s.san's wild eyes. The Tala.s.san raised his axe high. Abelar's blade vibrated with power.

The two forces collided in a cacophony of shouts, screams, whinnies, and the ring of metal on metal.

The priest of Talos chopped down with his axe. Abelar blocked with his shield and the enspelled slab of metal shattered the Tala.s.san's axe. Abelar drove his magical blade through the Tala.s.san's breastplate and ribs with such force that it drove the priest from his horse. Abelar carried him along for a stride, impaled on the blade, before shedding the corpse and pushing forward.

"On me!" he shouted, his light still blazing. "On me!"

He drove Swiftdawn through the tide of flesh and steel. She bit and stomped as he tore through Ordulin's ranks. His blade rose and fell, rose and fell. Blood sprayed; men and horses screamed; blows rained off his shield and armor. He gritted his teeth and killed everything within reach. His shield arm went numb. A blow to his chest nearly unhorsed him but did not penetrate his breastplate. He burst through the rear of Ordulin's ranks, a handful of his men at his side, and found himself not ten paces from one of Ordulin's wizards. The mage's sunken eyes widened with fear.

Abelar and his men put heels to their mounts and charged him. The wizard tried to turn his horse while he jerked a slim shaft of metal from his belt and pointed it at them. The wand discharged a wide beam of white-hot flame that caught both Abelar and Mekkin in the chest. Their tabards caught fire and sections of their breastplates flared red hot. Mekkin fell from his saddle, screaming. Abelar grunted through gritted teeth as his skin blistered and charred beneath his armor, but he kept his saddle and drove Swiftdawn into the wizard's horse. The smaller mount staggered under the warhorse's impact and the wizard scrambled to hold his reins. Abelar crosscut his throat and nearly decapitated him.

Ignoring the pain in his chest, he leaped off Swiftdawn and fell to Mekkin's side. He channeled healing energy into his blade hand, but Mekkin spasmed and died before Abelar could save him.

Abelar cursed and bounded back atop Swiftdawn as the battle caught up to him. The bulk of his force, following his lead, burst through Ordulin's ranks before the flanks of the larger force could collapse on their rear. "Sound a reformation," he said to Trewe, one of his standard bearers. "And stay on me."

Trewe blew the three-note muster and Abelar sped away from Ordulin's forces, drawing his men after. Ordulin's own trumpets sounded a call, and they, too, disengaged to regroup.

Abelar turned to survey the scene. A bowshot separated the forces. Dead men and horses littered the plain. Two riderless mounts, both Saerbian, pranced uncertainly through the carnage, eyes wild. Swiftdawn whinnied to call them; the two mounts snorted and galloped toward Abelar's company.

Regg rode up beside Abelar, his tabard and blade bloodied but no serious wounds on him. "They are not as many now, by Lathander!" Regg said, grinning. Regg could grin through a funeral.

"Truth," Abelar agreed.

"You are afire," Regg said, pointing at Abelar's tabard.

Abelar ignored the flames and they burned themselves out. "That, I am."

He did a rough head count and figured he'd lost perhaps forty men. He allowed himself only a moment to grieve for them and wish them well in Lathander's realm. He counted all his priests among the living. Already Roen and his fellow priests tended to the wounded with healing magic. He spotted Beld among his force. Blood spattered the young warrior's face-not his own. Beld saluted him with his blade.