Chapter Eight: Firestorm
The ship rocked gently in the waves, a fluid rolling motion I was quite unused to. I had never been aboard any vessel larger than a river boat in my own time; Grima had taken particular issue with those attempting to flee him across the sea, and once the great sailing ships had all been destroyed no one had had the time or resources to build more.
It was a fairly calm day on the sea, or so I'd been told. That didn't make sitting in the hold trying to ignore the ship's constant motions any easier. I didn't get violently seasick like some of the others had, but I certainly wasn't comfortable. And even after this, we'd still be at sea for nearly a week before making landfall based on the scouts' estimates. I managed to restrain a moan. A week of this? Well, at least I knew what I wasn't meant to be in life: a sailor.
The hold was packed, with each member of the Shepherds claiming their own tiny section of the wooden hull to lean against. With the hatches closed to the midday sun, a small number of lit candles provided our only illumination. The faces of the men and woman around me were uniformly grim. Everyone dealt with the time before a battle differently – that was something Lon'qu had told me many years ago. Preparing yourself to take lives and perhaps lose your own was never easy.
Perhaps that was why my mind was dwelling on thoughts of the voyage to come: to avoid thinking of the imminent battle. The success of Destin's strategy wouldn't make it any better; indeed it would likely become worse. We had to defeat the Valmese for the sake of our people, but I knew in my heart that witnessing the aftermath wasn't going to be easy for any of us. I hoped that Destin wouldn't regret his plan once he saw what it meant to execute it.
I let my thoughts drift to happier things. The previous day had brought me an unexpected joy. One of my comrades from the future had joined the ranks of the Feroxi army hoping to find others close to the actin. Once she'd heard my name spoken it didn't take long for her to track me down.
Kjelle was the daughter of Sully and Stahl, the famed Crimson and Viridian Knights of Ylisse and the leaders of the Shepherds' cavalry. She was also the most stalwart woman I'd ever had the pleasure of knowing, and a true friend. I'd lost count of the number of times she'd stepped into a gap and rendered it impassable with her thick steel armor and sheer determination. I couldn't think of a warrior I'd rather have at my side.
Her arrival made me wonder about the others who'd gone through the rift alongside us. How many of them were wandering the world lost right now? I felt responsible for what happened to them; to travel into the past had been my suggestion. Beyond that, although they fought bravely to protect the people some of them were still just children. The horrific nature of the world we'd lived in had forced all of us to grow up too fast.
I thought of my sister, Cynthia, and my cousin, Lissa's son Owain. They were great people and fun to hang around with, but with Cynthia's overwhelming desire to be a hero and Owain's insistence that he already was a hero, I wondered how long they would last by themselves. Though the world we had lived in was a cruel place, it had a kind of simple mercy to it; any human still living was your ally, and those who were dead were your enemy. That wasn't true in the past. Naivety could get you killed just as easily as lack of skill, and those two were trusting to a fault.
I wished we'd had more time before setting sail. I'm certain that any of the others who heard my name would come at once, rallying around me just as I'd thought long ago. But the Valmese would not wait, and any others on the continent we'd just left behind would be unable to catch up with us. It was a shame, but with any luck they might be safer there. At least they'd be spared from the bloody war we were engaged in.
"Target's been sighted! Ramming speed!" shouted a rough voice from the deck.
There was a rustling of clothing and armor as we all braced ourselves. Two ships ahead of us would take all the punishment from the Valmese in closing with their flagship. I'd wondered whether we'd really be able to pick it out so easily, but Destin had assured me that the commander would be at the front of the fleet. Valmese notions of strength and leadership demanded it.
I tried to shut out the distant sounds of wood being smashed apart by the Valmese attack. Their warships had front mounted ballistae on them, in addition to whatever mages they had aboard. The vessels being sacrificed to open the way for us didn't have a chance.
Abruptly, the ship was rocked by a collision that would've set us all on the floor if we hadn't been there already. A series of smaller collisions followed, and then the same rough voice yelled "Show time, lads and lasses!"
We were already on our way towards the hatch in a predetermined order when it was opened from the other side. Frederick was first out followed by the others who wore heavy armor. After they were all out the fastest and best fighters were next, and I had been included in that number. I would've enjoyed leaving the dark, damp hold and welcoming the brilliant midday sun had I not been going straight into a battle.
It seemed the Valmese had decided to board us first. Our vessel was boxed in by the Valmese flag ship and two other huge warships – we weren't going anywhere. Well, we'd planned to abandon the ship anyways. Soldiers in crimson and gold armor streamed onto our deck from the three enemy ships, swarming the armored wall set up around the hatch. It fell to us latecomers to do something about this.
"Break!" Destin commanded.
Kellam and Kjelle slid apart to provide an opening. Chrom, Destin, Lon'qu, and I all surged through the gap and into the Valmese amassed on the other side. Our whirling swords cut down a dozen of them before they started to pull back. Every moment brought more of the Shepherds onto the deck while the Valmese milled about uncertainly. By the time they charged us again, the hold was empty and we were ready to begin our attack.
It didn't go well for the Valmese. Our armored line broke up entirely, allowing the rest of the Shepherds to slip between them and countercharge the enemy soldiers. The few of us closer to the stern joined the assault from the side. Here on the sea they couldn't use cavalry, and their comparative hesitation was costing them. We nearly swept the main deck clear before reinforcements began boarding us from the three Valmese ships.
"Red, portside!" Destin shouted, struggling to be heard over the din. "Green, to stern! Blue to the target!"
It took me a moment to remember the color named groups he'd divided the Shepherds into to simplify giving orders quickly. The others were used to it by now; the three separate forces snapped together and began advancing in the direction indicated in a single, well-practiced motion. I'd only had one day's worth of drilling in their standard movements, so I didn't react as quickly and ended up lagging behind my assigned group.
We pushed all the way to the edge of our ship, cutting down the Valmese soldiers in our path. The deck of the Valmese warship directly adjacent to us was set higher than our own, and as close as the vessels were they didn't even need boarding planks or grapples to get across. The enemies on board seemed to be readying themselves for another attempt, but for now they were content to exchange largely ineffective missile fire with our line.
I used the short respite to look around. The other two groups had made their way to the sides of the ship, sweeping it clean of Valmese for the moment. I looked past the rigging of the ship to the right, focusing my gaze on another warship that wasn't engaged with us. It sat there dormant, the crew watching our struggle intently.
Would the entire Valmese fleet really just idle and observe this battle without joining it or even going after our other ships? They seemed to be doing just that, but it was hard to believe. Perhaps they had taken this attempt on their flagship as a challenge, an odd sort of naval combat by champion. Well, I suppose it wasn't far off at that; certainly any Valmese commander would surround himself with the strongest of his men, and the Shepherds were the most elite unit in our army. But they were sorely mistaken if they thought we intended to decide the battle with this single clash.
"Archers! Mages! Fall back to the center!" Destin shouted, interrupting my ill-timed reverie.
No sooner had he given the command then the flutter of wings from all sides announced the arrival of Valmese Pegasus Knights. They ducked and weaved around the masts and rigging of the collided ships, readying lances as they swooped down towards us. A haphazard barrage of arrows and spells shot out at them as our long distance attackers struggled to obey Destin's command while not exposing themselves. The Valmese remained undaunted.
A great cry went up from the surrounding ships as the enemy pressed the attack once again. This time mages and heavily armored knights were among the boarding parties, which pressed inward as one. We struggled desperately to hold the sides of the ship against the Valmese, the air filling with clashes of steel and the cries of the wounded.
On the edge of the line, I faced two Valmese soldiers armed with lances. Though my skill and agility were far better than theirs, I was still unused to fighting against living opponents. We made little headway against each other as tentative thrusts were parried or dodged. At last I saw an opening and rushed them, slashing the first man's throat open and bringing Falchion around to meet the second's spear. My parry deflected his weapon to the side, leaving him open for a fatal thrust to the heart.
I barely turned in time to evade the spear of a Valmese Pegasus Knight who darted past me. They were swarming the deck from all directions, though many were being brought down by arrows and spells. Another flier swooped down on me, and though the rider managed to graze my shoulder with her lance my return slash cut deep into her side.
A third seemed ready to attack until a powerful wind spell engulfed rider and mount and hurled them into the sea. I rather doubted the Valmese would bother trying to recover anyone who went overboard.
I returned to the line to take the place of Cordelia, who'd taken a lance through her leg. Able as she was, the crimson haired knight was unused to fighting without her Pegasus. I had a harder time fighting properly as part of a defensive line than on my own. Lengthy spears and poleaxes were much better suited to this kind of combat than my own Falchion. I could best any of these Valmese fighters one on one, but in my current position all I could do was hack at their weapons fruitlessly.
There was no time to assess the overall situation for the next few minutes, but I surmised that the enemy fliers had been defeated. Maribelle and Ricken returned from the central gathering Destin had ordered to fight them off, relieving the pressure the Valmese mages had been putting on our line. Once again the enemy pulled back, regrouping on the deck of their own warship in preparation for another assault.
"Red and green to the target! Blue, board!" Destin called.
I supposed it was that time already. We would give up the deck of our vessel so that we could board the Valmese flagship and take down the commander as planned. My own green group and the red led by Frederick began a measured withdrawal even as Chrom led his party onto the flagship. Valmese soldiers hastily moved forward to contest them, but were pushed back by the force of the Shepherds' advance
The enemy quickly moved to take advantage of our retreat. Valmese soldiers swarmed onto the deck of our ship from the other two warships, though they still didn't dare to charge.
Some ingenious soul had jury-rigged rope ladders leading up to the higher deck of the Valmese flagship. A new line coalesced in front of these ladders, preventing the Valmese from going to the aid of their leader. The sounds of combat continued to echo from above while the two sides glared at each other.
Little doubt Chrom would be facing off against the enemy commander. A great man he might be, but my father was far too eager to place himself in harm's way. But that's just the way he was, and there was no point trying to change it. Even Sumia simply accepted it as part of the man she fell in love with, but I knew that it was going to eventually get him killed. I just hoped it wouldn't be today. If history ended up that far out of place then…
"Red, green, board!" Destin shouted from overhead.
Immediately the rear of the line sheathed their weapons and began climbing the rope ladders onto the flagship. Had we won already? Even with Chrom's power and Destin's skill, to take over a massive ship like that so fast was impressive. As soon as we got everyone on board we could take our leave, at which point the rest would be in the hands of others.
More than half of our number had already climbed onto the flagship by the time the Valmese decided not to let us get away. Perhaps our reduced numbers gave them confidence. They charged forward with a roar.
But if our numbers had been reduced, well, so had theirs. And this time we were fighting on an even surface. I felt like I hadn't fought to the best of my ability until now. We needed time to get everyone on board the flagship, and I was certain that we could make that time.
I darted around the side of the line with Falchion at the ready. The Valmese hadn't expected me to countercharge them; they stopped short and thrust at me with their spears, a number of which I severed in passing. My fluid motions took me past a pair of lightly armored soldiers, both of whom I dispatched with swift slashes across their throats. A heavily armored knight cut me off with his lance, but I reversed my direction and thrust through a gap in his armor near the neck. It wasn't a fatal wound, but enough to put him out of the action.
Continuing onwards, I danced between the steel heads of the Valmese spears and delivered death to our enemy. Risen would have swarmed me without regard for their own existence, but the living had self-preservation to contend with. The more Valmese I felled, the fewer seemed willing to face me. Perhaps I should have retreated to the safety of the line then, but I was determined to buy as much time as possible.
So I persisted, crossing the wooden deck again and again as I struck at the Valmese. I took a few minor cuts where spearheads slipped past my guard, but nothing that would cripple me. Finishing yet another enemy, I stopped short at a shout from behind.
"Lucina! Come on!" Destin shouted.
I whirled to find that I was the last Shepherd on our ship. The others lined the side of the Valmese command vessel, driving the enemy back with spells and arrows. I sprinted back the way I'd come and leapt onto one of the rope ladders, climbing as fast as I could with Falchion still held in one hand.
I knew I shouldn't look back, but the rasp of steel behind me made me turn when I'd nearly reached the top. An armored knight raised his great axe to strike at me, and I was defenseless. I tried desperately to bring Falchion around to block it, but abruptly a crackling blast of lightning shot past me and into the knight. He was thrown back a dozen paces by the blast and fell to the deck, unmoving.
Resuming my climb, I reached up with my free hand only to have it seized by someone. I was hauled onto the deck of the flagship in one movement, though I collided with the person who'd helped me. I looked up to find Destin grinning at me.
"Careful now," he said. In his other hand he held his sword, which he used to cut all of the rope ladders at the top in one clean blow.
I let out the breath it seemed like I'd been holding in forever. We'd all made it, and our part of this plan was a success. After he let go of my hand, Destin raised his own and shot a brilliant red light into the sky. This signal would alert the rest of our fleet that the time to act had come.
The Shepherds bustled about our newly acquired ship, still maintaining projectile fire back at the vessel we'd arrived in to keep the Valmese off our back. It took a minute or two for us to wean the flagship away from the mess of crashed ships, but soon we were in open water and facing the fleet of borrowed Plegian warships that were sailing full speed towards the Valmese.
To the enemy, it would appear that we intended to engage them in a direct battle. They remained where they were, confident that their greater numbers would bring them victory. As Destin had predicted, no one among the Valmese expected what was coming; such a strategy was so alien to their mindset that they would never think of it as a possibility. And why should they? We had taken pains to show them exactly what they wanted to see.
The Plegian warships bearing down on the Valmese stretched as far as the eye could see on either side, arranged into pairs. Soldiers on the ships bustled about, seemingly readying themselves for battle. In our newly commandeered ship we passed one such pair, and only that close were the clay pots visible as the crew dumped oil all over the deck and prepared to jump ship.
All at once fire filled the sky as the soldiers abandoned their condemned vessels and then swiftly put them to the flame. The ship onto which they had fled immediately dropped anchors and halted its advance, as did every other safe vessel. That left the now flaming Plegian ships to sail onwards into the waiting Valmese fleet.
For a long minute there was no reaction at all. Soldiers of both sides just stared as three hundred flaming ships moved closer and closer to their target. The Shepherds were no exception. We'd all known the plan, of course, but it was one thing to imagine such a thing and quite another to see it actually happening. I was mesmerized by the fires roaring on the decks of the vessels.
At last the Valmese began to react, but far too late. Panicked shouts arose only moments before the first of the sacrificial ships collided with the front rank of the Plegian warships and the fire immediately spread to their deck. All along the line they crashed into the Valmese vessels with horrible crunches of tearing wood. Many of them began to sink, their structures damaged catastrophically by the collisions. But they had already done their job.
A fire raging on three hundred ships became a fire on six hundred. Flames leapt up the masts and across the rigging, spreading further to other ships. Tightly packed together as they were, there was no avenue of escape for the Valmese. Soldiers on the doomed ships began attempting to jump to others, though most of them ended up in the sea. Those wearing heavy armor sank instantly, while others flailed about in a desperate bid to stay afloat. But there would be no respite.
Then the wind, which had been but a soft breeze all day, intensified. Flames whipped wildly from the tops of the warships, igniting still more of the Valmese ships. By now the fires had reached the center of the fleet and spread in all directions with a fury I had never seen in a fire before. It was as though the inferno had become a great beast that was swallowing the Valmese whole.
At the far ends of the fleet, ships began to turn slowly using their anchors so that they could peel away from the firestorm. The sailors had reacted far too late, and just as many of the fleeing ships caught fire from adjacent vessels as they extricated themselves.
I stared raptly into the midst of the blazing inferno that had consumed the Valmese fleet. Men were still visible here and there, succumbing to flame and smoke or else leaping off their ships into the sea. All I could hear was the monstrous crackling of the fires and the screams of men. It was… terrible.
I looked down, desperately averting my gaze from the carnage playing out in front of me. My eyes focused on Falchion, which I still held in my right hand. It was thoroughly coated in blood, rapidly drying so that the entire blade was caked in red. The sight of Falchion, a sword of righteousness and purity, sheathed in the life force of people it should have been protecting… It hit me then, all at once – all the people I'd just killed, and the thousands more that were losing their lives right now because of this 'strategy'.
I vomited over the side of the ship.
After a moment a hand squeezed my shoulder, gently but firmly. I looked up to find my father, gazing down at me with a worried expression. He looked a little nauseous himself, but evidently he'd managed to restrain it.
"If I thought I could've spared you the sight of this, I would've," Destin said from where he stood on Chrom's other side. He was staring intently into the heart of the firestorm, but somehow I knew he was speaking to me. "Well, no one should have to witness something like this. But I knew it would affect you especially. I'm sorry."
"You… knew it would be like this?" I asked. I thought I'd understood how awful carrying out Destin's plan would end up being, but nothing had prepared me for this. I'm not sure anything could have.
"Yes. War is never pleasant. Tactics is the business of killing your enemy efficiently. Every action has a consequence, and this is what comes of mine. It's not easy, but someone has to bear it."
I looked over at Destin. The wind rustled his hair slightly and the lurid glow of the distant inferno reflected in his blue eyes. He watched solemnly as his plan neared completion, the flames dragging the Valmese fleet to the depths of the sea.
I remembered what I had thought about before coming to the past, about how I'd need to be prepared to do anything in order to achieve my goals. I'd believed that I was prepared, but could I have done something like this knowingly? I didn't know. But I had already taken part in my own way, slaughtering the Valmese to buy the others time. Wasn't that the same? Even then, I wasn't sure.
But Destin… he understood what I had thought of only in theory. It seemed he was already prepared to take all the sin in the world on himself to win, and to spare others from having to make the hard decisions. It scared me, because I realized in that moment that I didn't want him to. What did that mean?
The firestorm raged on, and I was left with no answer.
