Page 15 of Ensii
“Naram will make a more suitable ruler than you realize. Nehemian will see to it.”
“Sounds like my father is the real ruler, then.”
“Call it what you like.” Krispos jerked his chin to the rows of Hudspethites and freed Ilians. “If your liege lord needs an army to come into her own city, she can’t be true ruler, can she?”
An arrow shot from the dark, from atop one of the houses.
Krispos’s head snapped, a bolt ripping through the side of his neck. The general staggered back, collapsing into the arms of his soldiers.
“General!” several voices cried.
“Damn it, Breida!” Shaza roared. “I was—”
A javelin lunged for Shaza and he barely dodged. Cursing and spewing profanities to make even the most hardened criminal blush, he rushed back behind the lines as Krispos’s men sent a volley after them.
Talitha ducked behind her own shield less than as a heartbeat before the arrows thudded and bounced into her shield, knocking off like hail. She could only hope Shaza had made it.
The instant the first volley ended, Talitha leapt to her feet. “I am the ensaak of Ilios!” she shouted, her voice roaring back at her in an echo. “I will take back my city with steel and wash it with your blood if you try to stop me!”
“You are a deposed whore who lost her kingdom while she slept in the arms of her lover!” came back a man’s mocking reply. Talitha couldn’t see his face in the dark.
Talitha bristled. Clearly, there had been no point in trying to avoid Ashek for the sake of her reputation. Nehemian and his loyalists had destroyed that with their gossip long ago.
“I’m going to skin that priest and every one of his lackeys,” Ashek growled at her side.
Talitha’s nostrils flared, still glaring down the Ilians in front of her. Was she so easily betrayed? Or were these just the zealots who had secretly wanted her dead from the start?
“Long live Ensaak Naram!” came one voice.
“Long live Ensaak Naram!” echoed another.
Soon the whole of the opposing column chanted Naram’s name as they drew into formation. It seemed a captain had taken command, but she couldn’t see where he was.
“So it’s like that.” Talitha raised her sword and shield, dropping into the ready stance.
Still chanting Naram’s name, the enemy line advanced, drawing into a combat formation. Talitha had learned from experience that the only way to break through was to either break the lines—with the terrain, heavy cavalry, or something similar—or else they had to get up close enough to lock shields and fight through that way. They had no way to break the lines, so that answered that.
Above, Breida’s fighters rained arrows on the heads of the Ilians. The Ilian archers returned the volleys, shooting blindly for the roofs of the shops and at the invaders in front of them. The lines trudged toward one another, shouting and clanging coming from every direction.
Several of the Hudspethites made to rush the Ilian forces when they came just a few paces in reach.
“Hold the line!” Talitha yelled.
“Hold the line!” Ashek echoed.
Gilsazi’s great bellow roared from the back. “Hold the line!”
If they broke formation before they ever met the enemy, they would be routed in moments. Their shield wall pressed closer. Talitha raised her shield up over the soldier in front of her, glad the young man wasn’t too tall. At her back, the fighter behind her did the same so that they formed a shell of shields. This was what her grandfather’s grandfather had named the tortuga, because it looked like a tortoise.
The two lines neared one another. Talitha couldn’t see well and couldn’t have said what happened when the lines met.
There was a great clash as shields found one another and then shields clanged into swords. Talitha braced herself, cursing. The line wavered in front of her.
“Keep up the shields!” Talitha yelled. So long as they kept their shields up, no one could get through. “The Ilians will keep their shields up!” she yelled to Ashek. “We can’t let them break through!”
Her husband looked to the front of the line. “Shields!” he shouted, his voice carrying like the roar of a lion. “Stay your swords! Hold the shields!”
The shields shoved against one another. Swords nipped between cracks where they found an opening, but the soldiers at the front had to focus on keeping up their defenses. Those behind couldn’t reach past for fear of striking their comrades.
