Chapter six (Battle)

The rhythmic thumping of hooves ahead warned them of an approaching rider. Jardin nocked an arrow and took position behind a tree, Law unsheathed his bayonet. A rider emerged from around bend in the path, wearing kingdom colours. He saw Tonin, Dail and Mathe and started yelling.

"Not that way! The dead are attacking! I'm getting the Abhorsen!" he called to them as he passed. The dead; those three things on the dark farm. There would be hundreds of them, and the twelve would be pretty busy. Surely, he could take three or four of them in the confusion, but only if they got a move on. Jardin decided to lead, and they managed to reach the encampment five minutes later. By the time they did, the battle was well and truly over, a victory to the dead, apparently. The few guards who were still alive were fighting ferociously, in the centre of a clearing with hundreds of charred corpses strewn around.

"Oh, crap." Jardin whispered, and signalled for the group to stop on the tree line. Law sheathed his bayonet, and pulled his sword, which had been provided by his majesty. Jardin put a restraining hand on his shoulder.

"What are we waiting for, we have to help dammit!" he whispered to Jardin.

"Look closer, Law. You were right." he replied. Law looked. The twelve were in the centre of the clearing, hacking at the dead, fighting alongside other guards... who were in pretty bad shape. He didn't get it. He said so.

"That one there has a broken neck. That one has his throat torn out." Jardin pointed at two guards, and as Law looked, he saw that the twelve deserters were the only guards who were actually alive, and fighting.

"The dead are fighting each other?" Law said.

"The Royal Palace garrison only accepts the very best soldiers, or trains them," Jardin explained, slowly backing up, "If twelve soldiers survive an... onslaught this huge, they would be considered elite, perfect material for the royal palace guard."

"I thought of that," Law continued, "Twelve guards in the right place at the right time can kill the entire royal family and escape, right?" Jardin nodded. They both retreated.

"I can't let you go by yourself." Tonin stated, while checking the edge on her sword for something like the twelfth time.

"You haven't got a choice." Law replied, he knew he could tie her to a tree or something, silently. She knew this too.

"How many necromancers do you think can control enough dead to defeat two hundred charter mage guards this easily?" she said.

"I don't know." He knew she had a point.

"After Sabriel and Lirael stared cleaning the kingdom up, none. There's more than one controlling that lot, and together,they are very dangerous." That answer didn't help Law very much.

"They won't even see me," he said, "I'll go in, kill four then come back. Agreed?" She shook her head.

"Too dangerous."

"The Abhorsen is coming, with Thirty six guards!" Jardin interrupted them.

"We'll ask her then." Law said, Jardin stalked off, and signalled for Law to follow. He stopped at a small hillock well back from the clearing. Thirty six guards were standing at attention, in the dark, and a caped figure that he almost recognised was standing amongst them.

"Tonin!" she recognised Tonin immediately. They embraced warmly, she then shook hands with Jardin and with Law.

"Which one of you is our Ancelsterrian?" she asked.

"I am," Law stepped forward, "Lawrence Thallim, Ancelsterrian Air Brigade ma'am."

"Right. I've heard quite a bit about you, and this plot you've uncovered. How can I help?"

The going was slow over the corpses of fallen soldiers, and other, dismembered corpses that could have been months old. He had crawled over fifty metres, and still had over three hundred to go before he was within striking distance of the deserters, who had built a fire in the centre of the clearing. They were sprawled around it, and one thing they weren't faking at the moment was exhaustion. He stopped moving when he heard paces over the trodden grass, ahead of him. One of them was moving away from the fire to take a leak or something. He hoped that he had the decency not to do it over a dead body; especially not his, very much alive, body. If he went out past the trees, the Abhorsen's guards would handle it, or Jardin would. He passed Law, started speaking to a dead body.

"I always liked your ring, Fallon, thanks a lot." He recognised that voice; back in Ancelstierre, he would always carry a pack of cigarettes under his left sleeve, and blow smoke in Law's face, because Law didn't smoke. The arsehole was looting! Law stood up slowly, garrote loose and ready. Cigarette guy spat something out and searched another body. Law moved slowly so he wouldn't alert him, and finally reached him when he was still deep in a dead man's pockets. Law looped the garrote around his neck and planted his left boot against cigarette guy's head. He pushed with his foot and pulled; in a couple of seconds, the cable had sliced right through his arteries; he was dead. Law lowered the body quietly, and started crawling again. It took him almost half an hour to cover the three hundred metres to the ring of firelight; the deserters had been busy clearing a circle free of bodies, but they hadn't really done a very good job. He was safe here, and he could hear their conversation. None. Maybe they were too tired for talk. He could see his next target; the guy who always said exactly was sitting on a log on the other side of the ring of firelight. He began his crawl.

"Where's Trent?" one of them asked. At least Trent hadn't died without a name.

"Probably still looting." another replied. They all looked in the same general direction, and Law took the opportunity to put his bayonet into Exactly's neck and pull him off the log. He pushed him against the log and moved back out of the ring of firelight. They turned.

"Oh my god! Phil's gone!" one cried, "Phil! Where the fuck are you?" They were in a panic, but decided to get ready to move. They lined up and filed out of the field, leaving the fire burning. Law got up and followed, on foot now. He stooped while walking to pick up a dead man's sword, and slowly caught up to them. When the last one was in arm's reach, he hacked wildly, at the neck region, then hurled the sword at the second last one's back. The first man died quickly, but the second was only battered by the hilt of a flying sword.

"Someone's here!" he shouted.

Seven globes of light appeared around the tree line of the clearing, and they slowly rose in the air, illuminating the area. Everyone dropped to the ground, save Law and three of the deserters, who started running. Each fell when they were feathered with arrows. Law decided to drop too, just in case. Thirty soldiers emerged from the tree line, and they didn't seem pleased that a lot of their friends had been killed. One of the deserters decided to run, after all. Law grasped a sword and gave chase, he drove the sword into one of the other deserters as he ran. The one who had decided to run was running in a random pattern, to avoid arrows. He was close to the tree line, but Law was the faster runner, and hadn't spent hours hacking and moving dead bodies that day. Law reached the trees soon after him, but lost him. He couldn't see any tracks or anything in the dark, but was saved when a massive ball of light hovered past the tree line. He could see the tracks now, but the light was low to the ground. It was so bright it was disorienting. It was white light, but was so intense everything seemed to be in black and white. Law sped up a little, soon he was running. He couldn't see any shadow, and missed the pike staff poking out of a tree to trip him. It almost had the desired effect. He dived instead, and executed a combat roll, drawing his sword as he regained his feet. He turned to face his assailant. He could remember the face, but nothing about the man.

"Lawrence." the man acknowledged him.

"Sorry mate, don't know who the fuck you are." he replied. He had never fought against a guy with a stick before. A guy using a rifle like a stick though... The man swung at Law's head with the heavy, axe end of the pikestaff. Law ducked the swing and gave it an extra push with his sword. The blade swung around in the air, out of control, Law took the opportunity to give him a bone shattering kick in the right knee. He followed through with his body's rotation, and the man also received a solid blow to the jaw with the hilt of Law's sword. His cheek shattered, and the man passed out.