This is the last of the chapters in the queue, so it will probably be a few days until the next one. Enjoy: Dawn.

Stone

7.

“The Duke is a fool,” Sir Mowath said with a curse. Captain Mitchell gasped at the sacrilege. He had been brought up to believe that the nobility were appointed by God. But Mowath was his patron, and he said nothing.

“The old fart was completely taken in by this upstart. Yes, he is a giant, and can wield a sword, but that doesn’t make him worthy of knighthood. Why the man doesn’t even have the sense to get off his horse to fight, from what you say.”

“He did us pretty well four to one,” Mitch noted.

“Yes, but will he do as well with the Duke of Kona’s men? I have a bit of a surprise planned for the muscle-bound lug. He will lead this small troop of 200 riders out to scout the Konans, but my spies tell me they are moving an army of 5000 against us in two weeks. Big Boy can lead his horsemen against their forward troops, and get wiped out against the first wave, which is supposed to be 2000. Then I will appear on the scene with our 2500 foot soldiers and we can take out the remaining Konans, or at least bruise them so badly they will go back to their pathetic little land. And I will appear as the savior of Sarn, beloved by all. Then when our Duke suffers a little mishap, I will be the natural choice to replace him.”

Mitchell gulped. Was the knight talking of usurping the Duke? That would be treason. But then the other spoke again: “And if I become Duke, then someone else will need to become the knight defender of the realm. You may well attain that position, Mitch.”

Suddenly Mowath did not sound quite so treasonous, Mitchell thought.

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When Stone let Rayna and Carlson know he would be detained for a month, it was decided that Carlson would take the wagons back to the Barrens to supply the people. Stone wanted Rayna to go with him, but she flatly refused. Stone considered ordering her to do so, but he realized that doing so could be the start of him becoming a slave master. He next ordered her not to follow the army, and she refused that as well. In the end they agreed that she could accompany them, but separately, a few hundred yards to the east. In any battle, she could use her bow, but was not to enter the physical fray. Finally she agreed with that.

Back at the castle Sir Mowath introduced Stone to his men, 203 men on small horses. Small compared to Doug, anyway. Stone noticed they had the stirrup-less saddles, and immediately got the castle smith and sadler working to give them the new saddles.

Two days later the first 10 new saddles appeared, and Stone started training the first men in the art of fighting on horseback. The rest of the troop were given sword sticks, and made to attack the mounted men. They were amazed to see how effective a fighting force the mounted men could provide.

Even outnumbered 193 to 11, the foot soldiers got few blows in, but were battered by the sticks wielded by the horsemen. Even though men got up and attacked again after being struck by the horsemen (in a real battle they would have been dead or wounded) in just over an hour the foot soldiers conceded defeat and clamored for new saddles of their own.

The next day all the men participated in drills on horseback. Normally there was no drill on horses. After all, they were just used to convey troops to the battle site, so nothing was needed except learning to ride side-by-side in twos. But now Stone taught several other basic formations for attacking, and moving in battle. And while Stone was training the men, Doug was training the horses.

At the end of two weeks, they had 150 saddles, when orders came from Mowath that Kona was attacking in the north, and they had to head them off. Mowath told Stone that there would only be about 300 Konans in the first wave, hundreds less than his spies had told him there actually were. Stone blithely agreed that he could defeat 300, and Mowath assured him that he and the foot soldiers would appear the second day, to help reinforce the horsemen against the main attack.

“Remember, fight to the last man,” Mowath told Stone. He needed the advance party badly bruised to allow his soldiers to take on the second wave. He hoped that the horsemen could take out at least 500 of the 2000, and cause the rest to fall back into reserves, leaving only the 3000 man main force to attack his men.

Stone gathered his troops the next morning, and they left at 6 a.m. Mowath’s army left at the same time, but would take longer to ride to the battle site. The battlefield was about 40 miles away, and Stone expected to arrive that evening, but too late to fight. His men would camp, and then ride after the Konans in the early light the next morning.

That evening Stone looked over the enemy camp as his men set up. This is not 300 men, he realized, but thousands. He went back to tell his men that he wanted the 150 men with proper saddles to follow him in the morning. Any man wounded was to ride back to the reserve of 50, where one would take the horse, or at least the saddles and return to the fight while the others cared for the wounded.

That night, at about 2 a.m. Stone got a dozen wooden brands and lit them in the fire. He carried them in his left hand, and Pate in his right hand. He didn’t need hands to control Doug, who charged the Konan camp. There were guards on patrol of course, but Pate made sure that they were quickly cut down as the big horse charged into the middle of the enemy tents. Stone threw the brands at the largest tents, which quickly caught fire. Then Doug turned around, and they raced back through the chaos the camp had devolved into, with Pate singing a lusty song as she sliced through man after man in the charge and the return.

Once they were safe in their own camp, Stone looked back at the opposite hill. There were fires all over, with some of the flames leaping from one tent to another. Men were screaming that a devil had attacked them. “I don’t think many over there will get a good night’s sleep,” he muttered to the guards at his camp, who were watching the destruction of their enemy.

The trumpeter roused Stone’s men at sun-up, and they were amazed to see that the huge camp across from them was in disarray. Tents still smoldered, and men wandered about aimlessly. When all 150 were mounted, they cantered towards the enemy. The Konans saw them coming, and came out of the camp on foot, bearing swords and waiting for the Sarnan’s to dismount and fight. Even after the mayhem of the night, Kona put 1000 men on the field, with hundreds more rushing to the battle lines from far points in the camp. They were confident, seeing only 150 horses approach. It should be a slaughter.

And it was, but not in favor of the Konans. The horses rode straight up to the foot soldiers and the riders started hacking with long swords. The Konans couldn’t even reach with their shorter swords. And Stone was in the middle of it all, with Pate singing her bloodlust songs. Everything seemed to slow down for Stone, and it was as though he was fighting in a wire-frame world, where he could see where the next attack was coming from, and watched as Pate sliced through soldier after soldier. It took just over an hour for the battle to end, with the last few hundred Konans fleeing the field. Stone’s men were trained not the chase them down: too many battles were lost when a disorganized chase force came across orderly reinforcements.

When Stone came to the east side of the battle he started noticing men killed by arrow shots, usually in an ear or eye. He looked up, and saw Rayla, the promised 200 yards from her victims. “You had a busy morning,” Stone said as Doug approached the woman, he horse tethered another 200 yards away. “How did you kill so many with a quiver that only holds 20 arrows?”

“Magic, I guess,” the pretty redhead said. “I kept shooting, but with each arrow I drew another one appeared in its place. Magic is the only thing I think could do that. I was counting as I shot, and I shot 272 arrows. I expect they all were on target.”

“Do you want to eat with the soldiers?” Stone asked.

“No, I have food on Beauty,” she said. “Best not to announce my presence.”

Doug carried Stone back to the reserve, where he learned that only 14 of his men were wounded, and three fatalities, all who got back to the reserves before dying. That meant that 17 reserves had joined into the battle.

Stone thanked the wounded, and ordered that the three who died be somberly placed in a wagon so their remains would go back to Sarn for a hero’s funeral. A meal was prepared, and all the men were fed and rested. Doug insisted that all the soldiers tended to their horses before eating themselves.

Later in the day Stone had guards on both sides. He was looking for more of the Konans to the north, but men were also looking to the south to see when Mowath’s reinforcements would appear. The horsemen had not been bloodied too much in the encounter, but Stone was upset that what had been billed as a group of 300 turned out to be nearly 2000. Mowath needed to know how ineffective his spies were.

It was late evening when the guards to the north reported. Stone went out himself, and could see that an even larger army was camping on the same site as the former group. There was no word from the south, so Stone sent a single horseman to the south to report on the battle to Mowath, and see when he might appear. The foot soldiers should appear before noon on the morrow at least. If they were coming in by 10 a.m., then Stone would delay his attack until they were in position.

This night the raid on the camp could not be repeated. The Konans would have learned of the prior raid and would be ready for it. But Stone did not want to allow this group to get a full night’s sleep either. So at 2 a.m. he and Rayla were on a low ridge 100 yards to the east of the larger camp. Stone dug out a trench in the ridge they stood on, and built a fire in it that could not be easily seen from the camp.

A pot purloined from the mess wagon was full of tar, and the black semi-liquid was soon boiling. Rayla gave him half her arrows, and he stuck them in the tar. He would dab tar on each arrow, then hold it in the fire till it ignited, and then pass the arrow to Rayla, who quickly had it arcing over the camp and landing on a canvas tent. They shot 40 arrows in just a few minutes and by then there were sounds of soldiers approaching the ridge. Rayla did another 10 arrows on her own, then mounted Beauty and started to flee.

Stone was now on Doug, and headed out to the advancing patrols, with Pate singing her glory song as Stone dispatched all of the men, nearly 200. Fewer for tomorrow, he thought as he hacked through two groups of 50, and then one of 100. The foot soldiers didn’t have a chance in the dark. Stone went into his battle mode, with his attackers seeminly slowed down and clearly shown in wireframe, while Stone and Doug were practically invisible in the pitch dark. When Pate cried out a lament that there were no more to kill, he turned and ran off after Rayla. He dismounted and hugged her in congratulations, until he felt her tense up. He broke the hug and ordered her to get some sleep for the morning, when her bow would cause more havoc on the Konans.

Stone got about four hours of sleep, and his camp was waking up whne the trumpet sounded. Men tended to their horses, sharpening their weapons. Only a few of the Konans had metal armor, and killing those had dulled blades. Even the leather armor of the others had caused some need for maintenance.

A hearty breakfast was served. The scout sent south to report to Mowath had not returned. It was unlikely he would have been attacked on the way south, unless mistaken for an enemy by Mowath’s men. The other possibility was that Mowath was farther back than Stone expected. If so the scout should appear in the next hour or two.

Finally, at eight there was movement in the far camp. This time the foot soldiers amassed into blocks of 10 men across by 10 deep. They realized that the line of troops was not effective against mounted foes. The blocks seemed to be a perfect formation when attacking a smaller group of men on foot. Not so good for attacking mounted men. Stone could go into a square alone and kill all 100 men in five minutes. His men needed more power, so Stone sent three riders into each square, with one hitting each side and the other going at the middle. There were 30 squares, a scout counted, 15 squares across and another 15 behind with enough gap between to allow the horsemen attacking the rear squares to go between.

As Doug darted forth at the start of the battle, Stone felt himself go into battle mode, and everything seemed to slow down and the enemy appeared like wireframes. It was like playing a video game on the easiest setting.

As the men rode forth the enemy waited for them to pull up and dismount to fight. Of course this never happened, and soon mounted men were smashing into their squares, causing mayhem like never before. The 200 men from Sarn should be easy pickings for 3000 Konans, but it quickly turned into a rout the other way round.

Stone had cleared his first square in minutes, then the one behind it in a few more minutes. Pate was singing her glorious song, and few of the men she sliced though remained intact, let alone alive. After clearing his two squares, Stone headed to the east, aiding the men who were working on their squares. Stone was about to behead a soldier in front of him when he saw an arrow go into the earhole of his helm. Stone smiled. Rayla never missed.

It was 20 minutes later when the battle was over. The last 500 Konans were fleeing north, and Stone again prevented his men from chasing them. Such a small fighting force would be unable to threaten Sarn again.

He reformed his men on the ridge their camp sat on when he heard a yell from one of the reserves. Stone approached, and the man merely pointed. On the next ridge back, the main Sarn forces could be seen: setting up a camp. They had clearly been there some time, and for some reason had not come forward to help. Stone headed that way to find out why Mowath had not come forward to support his men.