The wheel of time, p.1269
The Wheel of Time, page 1269
Somehow finding the strength to weave, she roasted the first few Trollocs with balls of fire, tripping up the flow through the wound in the human lines. Streaks of white, arrows from Birgitte’s bow, followed. Trollocs gurgled, clawing at their necks where the arrows hit.
Elayne sent strike after strike from horseback, tired hands clinging to the saddle as she blinked eyes that seemed leaden. Dead Trollocs toppled, forming like a scab over the hole, blocking the others from ripping through. Reserve troops stumbled up, seizing ground and pushing the Trollocs back.
Elayne breathed out, wavering. Light! She felt as if she’d been forced to run around Caemlyn while pulling lead weights. She could barely sit upright, let alone hold the One Power. Her vision dimmed, then darkened further. Sound faded in her ears. Then … darkness.
Sound came back first. Distant yells, clangs. A very faint horn. The howls of the Trollocs. Occasional thundering from the dragons. Those aren’t firing as often, she thought. Aludra had moved to a rhythm in her firing. Bashere would pull back one section of troops and let them rest. The Trollocs would pour through, and the dragons would bombard them for a short time. As the Trollocs tried to crawl up and destroy the dragons, cavalry would come in and smash them at the flanks.
It killed a lot of Trollocs. That was their job … kill Trollocs …
Too slow, she thought. Too slow …
Elayne found herself on the ground, Birgitte’s worried face hovering above her.
“Oh, Light?” Elayne mumbled. “Did I fall off?”
“We caught you in time,” Birgitte muttered. “You slumped into our arms. Come on, we’re pulling back.”
“I…”
Birgitte raised an eyebrow at her, waiting for the argument.
It was hard to make one, lying on her back mere paces from the front lines. Saidar had fled her, and she probably couldn’t take hold of it again if her life depended on it. “Yes,” she said. “I should … should check on Bashere.”
“Very wise,” Birgitte said, waving for the guard to help Elayne back onto her horse. She hesitated, then. “You did well here, Elayne. They know how you fought. It was good for them to see.”
They began a hurried trip through the back lines. Those were very shallow; most soldiers were committed to the fight. They needed to win before that second Trolloc army arrived, and that meant throwing everything they had at this force.
Still, Elayne was surprised at the depleted reserves, the small number that could be spared to rotate from the front and rest. How long had it been?
The clouds had enveloped the open sky that often accompanied her. That seemed a bad sign. “Curse those clouds,” she muttered. “What time of day is it?”
“Maybe two hours from sunset,” Birgitte said.
“Light! You should have made me return to camp hours ago, Birgitte!”
The woman glared at her, and Elayne vaguely remembered attempts to do just that. Well, no use arguing about it now. Elayne was recovering some of her strength, and forced herself to sit straight-backed on her horse as she was led to the small valley between hills near Cairhien where Bashere gave battle orders.
She rode right up to the command post, not trusting her legs to be able to support her walking, and remained in the saddle as she addressed Bashere. “Is it working?”
He looked up at her. “I assume I can’t count on you any longer on the front?”
“Too weak to channel for now. I’m sorry.”
“You lasted longer than you should have.” He made a notation on his maps. “Good thing. I half think you were the only thing that kept the eastern flank from collapsing. I’ll need to send more support that direction.”
“Is it working?”
“Go have a look,” Bashere said, nodding toward the hillside.
Elayne gritted her teeth, but nudged Moonshadow up to where she could find a vantage. She lifted her looking glass with fingers that shook far more than she would have liked.
The Trolloc force had hit their bowed line of defenders. The natural result of this had been the infantry falling back, the bowl inverting as the Trollocs pushed forward. This had let the Shadowspawn feel as if they were gaining the advantage, and had stopped them from realizing the truth.
As they pressed forward, the infantry line had wrapped up and surrounded the Trolloc sides. She’d missed the most important moment, when Bashere had ordered the Aiel to attack. Their quick sweep around to hit the Trollocs from behind had worked as hoped.
Elayne’s forces had the Trollocs completely surrounded. An enormous circle of writhing Shadowspawn fought with her encircling force, pressing them together to constrict their movements and their ability to fight.
It was working. Light, it was. The Aiel beat against the back flanks of Trollocs, slaughtering them. The noose had been drawn.
Which of them was blowing those horns? Those were Trolloc horns.
Elayne searched through the Shadowspawn, but could not find the ones sounding the horns. She did spot some dead Myrddraal near the Aiel ranks. One of Aludra’s dragons—attached to its cart and pulled by a pair of horses—was with the Band’s horsemen. They had been positioning the carts on different hilltops to fire down into the Trollocs.
“Elayne…” Birgitte said.
“Oh, sorry,” Elayne said, lowering the looking glass and handing it to her Warder. “Have a look. It’s going well.”
“Elayne!”
With a start, she realized how worried the Warder was. Elayne spun, following the woman’s gaze south, far beyond the city’s walls. Those horns sounding … they’d been so soft, Elayne hadn’t realized they were coming from behind.
“Oh, no…” Elayne said, hastily raising her looking glass.
There, like black filth on the horizon, approached the second Trolloc army.
“Didn’t Bashere say they weren’t supposed to be here until tomorrow?” Birgitte said. “At the earliest?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Elayne said. “One way or another, they’re here. We need to get ready to turn those dragons the other way! Send the order to Talmanes, and find Lord Tam al’Thor! I want the Two Rivers men armed and ready. Light! The crossbowmen too. We have to slow that second army, any way possible.”
Bashere, she thought. I have to tell Bashere.
She spun Moonshadow, moving so fast she became dizzy. She tried to embrace the Source, but it wouldn’t come. She was so tired, she had trouble gripping the reins.
Somehow, she made it down the hill without falling off. Birgitte had left to convey her orders. Good woman. Elayne rode into camp to find an argument in progress.
“—won’t listen to this!” Bashere yelled. “I will not stand by and be insulted in my own camp, man!”
The object of his scorn was none other than Tam al’Thor. The steady Two Rivers man glanced at Elayne, and his eyes opened wider, as if he was surprised to see her there.
“Your Majesty,” Tam said. “I was told you were still out on the battlefield.” He turned back to Bashere, who grew red-faced.
“I didn’t want you going to her with—”
“Enough!” Elayne said, riding Moonshadow between them. Why was Tam of all people arguing with Bashere? “Bashere, the second Trolloc army is almost upon us.”
“Yes,” Bashere said, breathing deeply. “I just had word. Light, this is a disaster, Elayne. We need to pull out through gateways.”
“We exhausted the Kinswomen on our push up here, Bashere,” Elayne said. “Most can barely channel enough now to warm a teacup, let alone make a gateway.” Light, and I couldn’t warm the tea. She forced her voice to remain firm. “That was part of the plan.”
“I … That’s right,” Bashere said. He looked at the map. “Let me think. The city. We’ll retreat into the city.”
“And give the Shadowspawn time to rest, gather together, and assault us?” Elayne asked. “That’s what they’re probably trying to force us to do.”
“I don’t see any other choice,” Bashere said. “The city is our only hope.”
“The city?” Talmanes said, hurrying up, panting. “You can’t be talking about pulling back into the city.”
“Why not?” Elayne asked.
“Your Majesty, our infantry have just managed to surround a Trolloc army! They’re going at it tooth and claw! We have no reserves left, and our cavalry is exhausted. We’d never manage to disengage from that contest without sustaining heavy losses. And then our survivors would be holed up in the city, trapped between two armies of the Shadow.”
“Light,” Elayne whispered. “It’s like they planned it.”
“I think they did,” Tam said softly.
“Not this again,” Bashere bellowed. He didn’t seem like himself at all, though she knew that Saldaeans could have tempers. Bashere almost seemed like a different person. His wife had stepped up to his side, arms folded, and both confronted Tam.
“Have your say, Tam,” Elayne said.
“I—” Bashere began, but Elayne held up a hand.
“He knew, Your Majesty,” Tam said softly. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. He hasn’t been using the Aiel to scout.”
“What?” Elayne said. “Of course he has. I read the scout reports.”
“The reports are faked, or at least tampered with,” Tam said. “I talked to Bael. He said that none of his Aiel had been sent on scouting duty the last few days of our march. He said he thought my men had been doing it, but they hadn’t. I talked to Arganda, who thought Whitecloaks had been doing it, but Galad said that it was the Band.”
“It wasn’t us,” Talmanes said, frowning. “None of my men have been used for scout details.”
All eyes turned to Bashere.
“Who,” Elayne asked, “has been watching our rear, Bashere?”
“I…” He looked up, anger flaring again. “I have the reports somewhere! I showed them to you, and you approved them!”
“It’s all too perfect,” Elayne said. She felt a sudden chill, right at the middle point of her back. It spread down through her body, a wave of icy wind blowing through her veins. They’d been trapped, perfectly. Channelers run to exhaustion, soldiers committed to a close-fought battle, a second army left to approach in secret a day ahead of where falsified reports said they would be …
Davram Bashere was a Darkfriend.
“Bashere is relieved of duty,” she said.
“But—” he sputtered. His wife put her hand on his arm, looking at Elayne with fire in her eyes. Bashere leveled a finger at Tam. “I did send the Two Rivers men! Tam al’Thor must be the culprit. He’s trying to distract you, Your Majesty!”
“Talmanes,” Elayne said, feeling cold to the bone. “Have five Redarms put Lord Bashere and his wife under guard.”
Bashere let out a string of curses. Elayne was surprised at how calm she felt. Her emotions were deadened. She watched him be dragged away.
There wasn’t time for this. “Gather our commanders,” Elayne said to the others. “Galad, Arganda … Finish off that Trolloc army above the city! Spread the word to the men. Throw everything we have into this battle! If we can’t crush the Trollocs in the next hour, we die here!
“Talmanes, those dragons can’t be much use against the Trollocs now that they’re surrounded—you risk hitting our men. Have Aludra move all of the dragon carts up on the tallest hill to pound the new enemy coming up from the south. Tell the Ogier to make a cordon around the hill the dragons are on; we can’t have them damaged. Tam, put your Two Rivers bowmen on the surrounding hills. And have the Legion of the Dragon form up the front lines, crossbowmen in the lead, heavy cavalry behind. Light willing, that will be enough to buy us time to finish off the surrounded Trollocs.”
It would be close. Light! If that second army surrounded her men …
Elayne took a deep breath, then opened herself to saidar. The One Power flooded into her, though she could hold only a trickle. She could act as if she weren’t exhausted, but her body knew the truth.
She would lead them anyway.
CHAPTER
27
Friendly Fire
Gareth Bryne strode through the camp he had set up on the Arafellin side, several hundred paces on the Kandor border east of the ford, ignoring soldiers who tried to salute him. Siuan hastened at one side, a messenger delivering reports at his other. They were trailed by a flurry of guards and attendants carrying maps, ink and paper.
The whole burning place shook with explosions of the Power. Crashing racket and calamity … it was like being in the middle of a rockslide.
He’d stopped being bothered by the scent of smoke. It was pervasive. At least some of the fires were put out; those Seanchan channelers had set up by the river and were drawing out streams of water.
Nearby, a rack of polearms tumbled to the ground in a clatter as a surge of the One Power hit in the camp nearby. He stumbled, and earth sprayed around him and Siuan, pebbles clattering against his helmet and breastplate.
“Keep talking, man,” he snapped at Holcom, the messenger.
“Er, yes, my Lord.” The spindly man had a face like a horse. “The Aes Sedai on the Red, Green, and Blue hilltops are all holding. The Gray have fallen back, and the White report that they’re running out of strength.”
“The other Aes Sedai will be tiring as well,” Siuan said. “I’m not surprised that the Whites are the first to admit it. It won’t be a point of shame to them, merely another fact.”
Bryne grunted, ignoring another spray of earth as it fell over them. He had to keep moving. The Shadow had too many gateways now. They’d try to strike at his command centers. That was what he’d do, if he were them. The best counter to that strategy was to not have a command center, at least not one that was easy to find.
All things considered, the battle was going according to plan. It was a surprise, sometimes, when that happened; on a battlefield, you expected to have to rebuild your tactics from the ground up at every turn—but for once, everything had gone smoothly.
Aes Sedai were pounding the Sharans from the hilltops south of the ford, augmented by a steady stream of projectiles from archers stationed just below them on the slopes. Because of that, the Shadow’s commander—Demandred himself—couldn’t devote all his troops against the defenders at the river. Nor could he bring all his troops against the Aes Sedai—they would Travel away—so committing himself fully there would expose him with very little gain. Instead, he’d split his forces, sending the Trollocs off his right flank toward the hills—they would sustain heavy losses, but he’d keep the Aes Sedai pressed—and bringing his Sharans forward to engage the bulk of the White Tower troops at the river.
The Seanchan occupied most of the enemy channelers’ attention. This did not prevent some Sharan channelers from lobbing fire at Bryne’s camp across the river. There was no use worrying about being hit. He was as safe here as he would be anywhere, other than perhaps retreating all the way to the White Tower. He couldn’t stand the idea of being safe in a room somewhere, miles from the battlefield.
Light, he thought. That’s how commanders will probably do it in the future. A secure command position accessed only by gateways. But a general needed to feel the flow of the battlefield. He couldn’t do that from miles away.
“How well are the pikemen on each of the hills doing?” he demanded.
“Very well, my Lord,” said Holcom. “As well as can be expected after hours of holding off Trollocs.” Bryne had placed defensive lines of pikemen halfway up each of the hills; any Trollocs that managed to get through the cordon could be picked off by archers above, without having to disturb the work of the Aes Sedai. “The pikes defending the Red Ajah on the middle hill will be needing reinforcement soon, though; they lost a fair number on the last assault.”
“They’ll have to hang on a bit longer. Those Reds are nasty enough to take care of any more Trollocs that break through the pike formations.” He hoped. Another explosion flattened a tent nearby. “How about the archer squadrons up there?” Bryne kicked aside a fallen halberd.
“Some are getting low on arrows, my Lord.”
Well, he couldn’t do much about that. He glanced toward the ford, but it was a right mess of confusion. It rankled him to be this close to the fighting and not know how things were going for his troops.
“Does anyone have information about what’s happening at the ford?” he bellowed, turning toward his aides. “I can’t see a Light-blasted thing, just a churning of bodies and those balls of fire shooting back and forth, blinding us all!”
Holcom paled. “Those Seanchan women are channeling like they’ve got red-hot irons up … I mean, they’re giving the Sharans a hard time, my Lord. Our left flank just took a lot of casualties, but they seem to be fighting back admirably now.”
“Didn’t I put Joni in command of the lancers there?”
“Captain Shagrin is dead, my Lord,” said another messenger, stepping forward. He had a fresh cut on his scalp. “I’ve just come from there.”
Burn me. Well, Joni had always wanted to fall in battle. Bryne kept his emotions in check. “Who commands now?”
“Uno Nomesta,” the messenger said. “He pulled us together after Joni fell, but sends warning that they’re being hard-pressed.”
“Thank the Light! Nomesta’s a good officer!” He’d been training heavy cavalry for years, and there probably wasn’t a better man in the saddle than him. “All right, get back there and tell him I’m giving him some reinforcements.”
Bryne turned back to Holcom. “Get over to Captain Denhold and have him send his cavalry reserve squadron across the ford to beef up our left flank. Let’s see what those Illianers can do! We can’t lose this river!”
The messenger rushed off. I’ll have to do something to take the pressure off those Aes Sedai soon. He bellowed, “Annah, where are you?”
Two soldiers talking nearby were pushed aside as a heavyset young woman—a former merchant’s guard and now foot soldier and messenger serving General Bryne—shoved through. “My Lord?”
