Chapter 1
Sergeant Tuggs prayed for nightfall. His lungs burnt like he had swallowed a piece of coal, his legs were cramping, and his knees had given out beneath him more than once. The right side of his chest where the sword had struck him throbbed with such blinding pain that his jaw was sore from tensing through it. His chain mail had saved him, but he was sure several ribs were broken. His right arm clutched at his side whilst he held his sword in his left. He thought he could hear his pursuers in the distance, but it could have been the sound of his own heart thudding in his chest. He leaned against the trunk of a tree, trying desperately to catch his breath. His energy was almost spent; he was saving the last of it to go down fighting.
The battle had been a disaster. They had fought ferociously on the right flank, giving no ground for what seemed like an eternity. Captain Roma as always had been at the front, fighting with sword and shield and killing with deadly efficiency. Next to her had been the colossal Lieutenant Mags, his massive axe severing heads and limbs with each stroke. With them as the centrepiece, 11th Company stood unmoving in the face of the enemy. Sergeant Tuggs and his squad had fought at the captain’s right, his sword being swung with the competence of a career soldier of ten years and the strength of a man over six foot who’d spent his early years working a farm.
Great streams of multi-coloured fire arched over the soldier’s heads, casting abnormal light over the combatants. Forks of lightning crashed into the Aenean ranks as the Ethyl war-mages looked to equal the field, cancelling the Imperial’s superior training and discipline with unnatural magic, striking fear equally into both sides.
Corporal Danza had taken Tuggs right, buckler shield strapped to one arm and a hand axe in the other. Doris stood over Shoots as she reloaded her crossbow, firing bolt after bolt into the foe, with Doris dispatching anyone foolish enough to get within range.
Private Sharp killed ruthlessly without remorse, his knives getting him in close, his hands painted red with gore. Private Tinker, lacking the skill of the rest of the squad, had still made up for it with frenzied sword swinging born from fear.
Lash stood close by the new recruit, watching his back. Brightleaf had been doing as he had been told, hanging back and causing mayhem, sending bright flashes of light or making loud explosions that caused distraction more than damage.
And Gaps… Spirits, Gaps, I’m sorry. His squad were doing him proud, like he knew they would, and the company hadn’t looked like breaking.
The retreat had been sounded from behind them on the hill. The companies on their left and right flanks had turned and fled without even the decency of a fighting retreat. Abruptly, the arcs of fire and flashes of lightning had stopped. The enemy had surged forward, encircling 11th Company before they had a chance to follow. There was no way out. Tuggs had called his squad to him with the intention of rallying around Captain Roma.
Suddenly to his right a massive hole was blown into the enemy ranks, magical fire causing dozens of the foe to be flung off their feet. Seeing the breach, Captain Roma had charged into it, Mags at her back and Sergeant Tuggs and his squad following behind. Mane, a mage from another squad, had been sprawled on his hands and knees and Tuggs recalled hoisting him to his feet and pulling him along for a time. The rest had been a blur as they had somehow fought their way clear through the enemy’s rear and fled into the forest behind enemy lines.
There had been a pursuit and Sergeant Tuggs had turned off from his squad, the enemy close on his heels. He had been running since.
The sky was darkening. Another hour and it would be complete darkness. His pursuers would need to give up the chase if they hadn’t already. Then the rest of his problems would need to be addressed. He was alone, cut off from his army behind enemy lines and a hundred miles from home. Find your squad, then worry about the rest, he decided.
He had slid down the tree whilst catching his breath, sitting on his heels. Forcing himself up was a colossal effort and he stood for a moment, making sure his legs were not going to cramp again before moving on. He turned around, back in the direction he had come, hoping if anyone had given chase that they too had decided to turn and head home. If they hadn’t, well I’m done with running.
Night came quickly and with it the forest seemed to come alive. At first every sound was a threat to the sergeant. The rustling of leaves was an enemy in the bush, every shadow a hiding place for assailants. But as he continued moving the fear started to fade and a numbness washed over him. The night sky was cloudless, and the moonlight bathed the forest in an ethereal glow.
Nighttime belonged to the Drydra, the druids said, the god-like spirits becoming more powerful by the light of the moon. There were forests and valleys many Ethyl wouldn’t dare tread under the light of the moon, and even the bravest would seek a blessing from the druids before making such a journey. Tuggs had no choice, and sent his own prayer to the Twin Sisters of Twilight, hoping that blessing would be enough. Fatigue left no place for fear inside of him and he found a place of calm within himself. For a few moments at least.
The sound of hushed voices sent fear flooding back into him. He crouched low, sword at the ready to fight for his life. The forest carried the voices, making it difficult for him to pinpoint where they were coming from. He moved into the shadow of a large tree, forcing himself to steady his breathing so he could hear what was being said.
‘You sure someone is here? I can’t hear anything,’ whispered a voice.
‘Sure, and they’re close too.’
The sound of twigs snapping under foot told Tuggs they were getting closer. The wind had stopped and Tuggs cursed the stillness of the leaves. He moved his right hand from his injured ribs and held his sword two handed, preparing to charge.
‘What if it isn’t one of ours?’ said the first voice, sounding nervous.
‘Why would one of them be out here alone in the middle of the night?’ answered the second. He hoped there were only two of them. They were speaking Old Imperial, but that didn’t reassure him much. Every kingdom in the west spoke the Old Imperial tongue. Perhaps if they were speaking louder, he could make out their accents, but the blood pumping in his ears made it hard to hear anything.
‘I don’t know Mane. I think if someone was out here, we would have heard them by now.’ Mane? thought Tuggs. Private Mane!
‘11th Company?’ asked Tuggs, stepping out from the shadow of the tree. He had his sword ready to strike if he didn’t like their answer.
There were only two of them, the short, chubby figure of Private Mane and another soldier whose name he didn’t know from one of the other squads. The two jumped as he revealed himself, the soldier thrusting out his spear in front of him. Mane was without a weapon as most mages normally were.
‘Sergeant Tuggs, is that you?’ asked Mane, pushing the point of the soldier’s spear down as he recognised the sergeant. The three of them relaxed. Tuggs sheathed his sword and let out a sigh of relief. He looked over the two soldiers in front of them. Dirty, frightened and tired, but they were alive. Most likely a mirror image of how he himself looked.
‘Just the two of you or did more of us make it?’ Tuggs asked Mane.
‘Half the company made it out Sergeant. The captain’s got us cooped up not far from here,’ answered Mane, turning and leading the way. Tuggs turned to the other soldier.
‘Any water left Private? My mouth’s as dry as a beggar’s sandal’
‘Private Sums sir,’ he said, handing him a half empty water skin. Tuggs’ had been lost during his flight. He’d get a flogging for that when he got back home unless he was able to replace it soon. Three lashes most likely. A worry for another time.
‘Thank you,’ he said, handing the water back. ‘Manage to find any of my squad?’ he asked, hoping they were with the rest of the company.
‘Not sure, sir. I was drafted just before the battle. Don’t know who’s who,’ answered Sums.
‘Yeah, they’re there, Sergeant. One of the first groups we found,’ answered Mane over his shoulder.
‘Any casualties?’ pressed Tuggs.
‘Have to see when we get there, I’m afraid. I don’t know.’
The rest of the short walk was made in silence. About half a mile from where they had found Tuggs they stepped into a small clearing of trees and found 11th Company, or at least what was left of them.
All of the soldiers carried some kind of wound. Some had merely bumps and bruises; others carried wounds they wouldn’t recover from. Tuggs noticed that most of the soldiers were tending their own wounds.
‘No healers?’ asked Tuggs, turning to Mane. ‘Where’s Winks?’
‘Didn’t make it,’ he said sadly. Across the clearing, leaning on a fallen tree, Sergeant Hanno let out a groan, clutching a wound at his side that would have looked a lot similar to the one Tuggs would have gotten had his chainmail not saved him.
‘Private Brightleaf,’ he said, looking around for his own squad. ‘He knows healing. He might be able to save some of these poor bastards.’ His squad sat huddled together on the far side of the clearing and hadn’t noticed him. Brightleaf wasn’t amongst them. He looked to Mane, who nodded in the other direction. He looked, finding Brightleaf lying on his back, a deep wound on his hip. Tuggs didn’t know much about healing, but knew you couldn’t get much done with a wound like that in your side.
‘I’ll tell the captain you’re here Sergeant. You go let your squad know you’re alive.’ He moved off, letting Tuggs go to his squad. Shoots was the first to notice him.
‘Hey! You made it. We thought we had lost you for sure back there Sarge.’ The rest of his squad turned to welcome him. Doris stood up, patting him on the shoulder. Danza greeted him with a nod, and even Sharp managed a friendly grimace. He sat himself down slowly, wincing as the pain in his side flared up again. Private Tinker didn’t move, but Tuggs was just happy he’d made it. The shocked expression on Gaps’ face flashed in Tuggs mind’s eye. Dammit, Gaps, I told you to stay—
‘Nice of you to join the party, Tuggs,’ said Lash, re-joining the squad after emptying his bladder.
By some miracle, most of his squad had survived the battle. Shoots had a cut on her face that had been poorly stitched by someone. Lash had wrapped a makeshift bandage around his knee. Doris looked like he’d been kicked in the face by a mule, his nose wickedly curving to one side. Tinker looked unscathed, other than the terror in his eyes. Sharp was so covered in other people’s blood that Tuggs couldn’t tell if he carried any of his own wounds. Only Brightleaf from his squad was badly hurt amongst the living.
Captain Roma strode over to Tuggs and his crew, the giant Lieutenant Mags at her side as always. A shallow wound had slipped between his armour and gashed his shoulder. On the captain no wounds were visible.
‘Sergeant Tuggs,’ said the captain addressing him as she stood over him. He stood and saluted her, right fist to chest. ‘None of that Sergeant we are behind enemy lines.’ He straightened, cursing himself for being so foolish. Saluting an officer in a war zone just let the enemy know who to kill first.
‘You lost your squad.’ It was a statement that seemed to demand an answer. Before he could speak Lash spoke up.
‘We’d have been done for if he hadn’t led them off. Especially with Doris carrying Brightleaf and my knee being how it was.’
‘I wasn’t speaking to you soldier,’ she said coldly, not taking her eyes off of Tuggs.
Lash retreated, sitting down next to Shoots some feet away.
‘I did, Captain,’ answered Tuggs eventually.
‘And yet your squad was the only one that made it out of there wholly unscathed.’ Tuggs wasn’t sure, but it sounded almost like praise.
‘I lost a kid, Gaps,’ said Tuggs, unable to keep the emotion out of his voice and the memory of that damned shocked expression the recruit had had whilst his entrails fell out from his mind.
‘I’ve lost fifty soldiers, Sergeant.’ Tuggs said nothing, seeing the captain’s point.
‘I’m grouping the soldiers we have left together into new squads. Seems yours is largely intact, no need to change much there. I’m also having Private Sums and Hawkit join your squad. Once the other squads have been made up, I’ll be addressing the company about what happens next. In the meantime, have everyone as ready as possible to move out. Understood, Sergeant?’
‘Yes, Captain,’ he answered.
She nodded and moved off, Mags her shadow. He thought it strange how she could stay so in control. Lost, cut off and with very little chance of survival, she seemed as cool as if it were a training mission. It paid to have a cool head in these situations, and he admired her calmness.
Who’d want to be captain? he thought grimly as he turned to his squad.
He spent the next few moments making sure the rest of his squad weren’t carrying any other injury. Lash had had something heavy crash against his knee. Although painful, he assured Tuggs he could manage. Doris had been head butted but promised the man responsible was face down dead in the mud somewhere. Shoots had no other injuries other than the cut on her cheek. When Tuggs asked Tinker if he was carrying any wounds, he shook his head without looking up. Shock, thought Tuggs. Common after a battle, especially after a shit-show like that. He made a note to talk to the lad alone once they got moving.
Once satisfied that the main body of his squad was in decent shape, he moved over to see Brightleaf. From his colour, he could see the squad mage had lost a lot of blood. Sweat was glistening on his brow and the pain was written clear as day on his face. When the mage saw his sergeant, he forced a grin.
‘You made it,’ he said, extending his hand out a little for Tuggs to take. Tuggs knelt beside him. ‘Whole squad made it out. Gang of lucky bastards aren’t we. Well almost,’ he finished, pointing with his chin towards the wound at his side.
‘It’s just a flesh wound. An hour's rest and you’ll be on your feet,’ said Tuggs, not wanting to distress his mage with the news of Gaps. He would know soon enough.
‘Afraid not, Sarge. Private Mane had a look when we got back. The hip bone is shattered. I won’t be walking anywhere any time soon.’
‘Can’t Mane heal you?’
‘Says he’s useless at healing. Worst thing is I could heal the bastard thing myself easy enough. Big broken bones are easy; it’s the little ones that are tough like in the hand. Cruel irony that us healers can’t work healing on ourselves.’ He let out a dry laugh lined with pain.
‘We will make a stretcher out of something, you just hang in there, Private, you hear me?’ said Tuggs, patting the back of the mage’s hand. Brightleaf nodded as the sergeant moved off.
Captain Roma stood at the centre of the clearing and called the company to her, the moonlight illuminating her as the survivors of the 2nd regiment, 11th company gathered around. Tuggs studied the soldiers of the other squads and realised how fortunate his squad had been. Some of the faces bore the same shock Tinker did. Others looked terrified, like they were about to break down in tears and run.
His eyes locked with Private Tris, her beautiful face covered in blood. She nodded tightly to let him know she was okay, and the pair shared a smile, the type exchanged at a family member’s funeral. When she noticed him clutching at his side, she shot him a worried glance, but he shook his head, shrugging off the fuss. Save it for some of these other poor bastards, he thought grimly.
There were other badly wounded amongst them, although none quite as bad as Brightleaf and Sergeant Hanno. The wounded bore the pain on their faces, it being too great to mask. The rest just looked angry, although at whom they were directing it at Tuggs was unsure. Even Lieutenant Mags was looking more grim-faced than usual. Only Captain Roma seemed unfazed.
‘Okay, here is the situation,’ she said, raising her voice just enough that it carried to everyone. ‘As you should all have worked out by now, someone fucked up and the battle didn’t go to plan. Of the eighty-nine soldiers we had at the start of today, forty-one made it. Some of you may have lost friends, but grieving will need to wait. We are a long way from home.’
Cries went up from the company. What do we do? How did this happen? Had anybody seen… Captain Roma endured them silently, waiting.
‘So, we just lay low right?’ asked a frightened soldier. ‘We wait for the Imperials to push on and then just go home.’
‘That’s not possible,’ replied Roma. ‘Hanno and his squad tried just that. The Imperials have left a five hundred strong rear guard and have their auxiliary cav’ sweeping the tree line.’
‘We can head south,’ added Peggar, a new recruit. ‘Use the South Road and turn off before Renois.’
‘The South Road is the most direct route from here to Aenea. It’ll be swarming with Imperials supplying the invasion,’ said Roma through gritted teeth. ‘We can’t just turn around and march home. There is an army between us, the same one that just kicked our arses. And we can’t go south. That means we have to go north... and east, into Epathia.’
As she finished speaking the clearing erupted in disapproving groans and outraged cries. Soldiers shook their heads in disbelief and even Tuggs was questioning what he had just heard.
'Epathia? You want to take us deeper into enemy territory?’ risked a brave soldier, saying what they had all been thinking.
‘Watch that tone soldier,’ said the captain, turning her icy cold stare on the private. But the same incredulous look was on the faces of the entire company barring Lieutenant Mags. ‘We don’t have a choice. If we stay here, they’ll come for us. We try to break through their lines, some of us might make it, most won’t. The South Road will be full of enemy troops by the time we make it there resupplying the invasion. The only place we have even half a chance is east, where they won’t be looking for us.’
None of the soldiers looked convinced by the captain’s words. Tuggs had heard what she had said and could see the logic in it, but moving deeper into an enemy controlled country seemed like madness. Or suicide, he thought gravely.
A young soldier raised his hand, someone Tuggs hadn’t seen before. The captain nodded for him to speak, although it was obvious her patience was hanging by a thread.
‘What happens if they have mages who can track us? I heard mages can do that!’ he asked, looking at Mane suspiciously.
‘Imperial’s don’t use mages so…’ a squeak from Mane interrupted the captain. She turned to him, as did the rest of the company. He wilted under their stare, sweat glistening on his dark brow.
‘Sorry Captain,’ he croaked, trying to clear his throat. ‘I don’t think that is entirely true. I know it is highly unusual for Imperials to use magic-users of any kind but, when I was searching for the rest of the company, I couldn’t help but get the feeling there were others looking, using similar means.’
‘Could it not be another one of our mages?’ asked Mags hopefully.
‘Whoever it was had a more malevolent aura about them,’ answered Mane, swallowing hard. Roma and Mags shared a grim look. Tuggs shared their unease. He had seen first had the devastation the Ethyl mages had caused in the Aenean’s ranks. The thought of the Aeneans using mages of their own, coupled with their unmatched soldiery, was a distressing thought.
Another soldier raised his hand timidly, asking permission to speak.
‘Does this look like a Village Council meeting? What is it dammit?’ snapped the captain.
‘We don’t know the land, Captain. If we go north and east, we could walk straight into their hands. What then?’
‘We kill the bastards. Or we die trying. That’s your job. You all took the king’s coin; all signed your papers? Yeah, I thought so. The enemy knows as much about these lands as we do. They hadn’t conquered Epathia three weeks before they marched through to us. So, we go east and we be careful. We stay hidden and we stay quiet; that means no battle songs, Grunt. We avoid them where we can and kill them where we can't. This is not up for discussion.’
Tuggs watched her carefully, trying to discern what she was thinking. He could understand the captain’s reasoning. It was a perilous and complex situation the company was in. But rather than try to solve it, Tuggs decided to simplify the situation. Roma was his captain and as a sergeant he would follow her orders.
As if sensing she hadn’t quite convinced the rest of the company, she spoke again. ‘I can see by the look on your faces you aren’t convinced. Some of you doubt my judgement. That’s okay. As long as you obey my commands you can doubt every single word I say. As long as you jump when I say jump you can doubt me when I say I need to squat to take a piss. I don’t give a damn you hear? But if any of you are planning on not following orders you make yourselves known to me now and I will happily rid your bodies of your witless heads and spit on you for insubordination.’
The clearing went stone quiet. No one moved, other than the colossal Mags who hefted his giant double headed axe as if to hammer the message home. No more hands were raised and the looks of doubt in the company had been replaced with grim resignation. That’s done the trick.
‘Okay,’ said the captain at last, her calm restored. ‘I’ve rearranged you into four squads. Leading will be Sergeants Marsten, Tuggs, Hame, and Corporal Pimms will be acting sergeant whilst Hanno is injured. Sergeants I want your squads ready to move out at dawn, try and get some rest until then. Mane, you’re with me.’ Tuggs watched the little mage tense as the captain said his name, pitying the man as he scurried after Roma.
As the company moved off, arranging themselves into their new squads and settling down for the night, Lieutenant Mags moved into the centre of the clearing.
‘Not you three,’ he said, addressing the three privates who had asked questions. ‘You three are on watch.’ Something told Tuggs the rest of the company would keep their concerns to themselves in future.