"Ristel de Kelsira." Lisabelle said, her voice a mix of shock and disgust.
"Lady Lisabelle de Lereyne." Ristel de Kelsira replied in an even tone.
Alarant was stunned into silence. He had believed Lady de Kelsira to be as loyal to the cause as Lisabelle or himself.
"Why?" Ducerain said. Alarant's father had stepped forwards. He was still unarmed, but Ristel de Kelsira seemed to shy away from his presence.
"I have a family. My entire house depends on my actions to restore them, to restore us to our rightful station." Ristel de Kelsira said, unable to match Ducerain's gaze. "I cannot take a course that would endanger them so much."
She looked at Alarant and Lisabelle. "For what little it is worth, I am sorry for what I have done."
Lisabelle drew herself up and stared at Lady de Kelsira. "Your apology rings hollow, Lady de Kelsira."
Ristel lunged forward in her seat, shield clattering against the armour of her mount. "What about Anna? What about your family, Lisabelle de Lereyne? I would have mine live, oaths be damned. What of your daughter?"
Lisabelle laid a hand on the box behind her carrying the orb. When she made no retort to Lady de Kelsira's words, Alarant spoke in her stead.
"I would have Anna awaken to a world she could be proud of. I miss her, I miss her terribly," Alarant paused a moment, regaining his composure, "But this world you are making is not worthy of her. If this is what I would bring her back to, I would rather endure the absence."
Ristel de Kelsira replied, but Alarant's attention was taken by a hand pressing on his.
"Alarant," Lyriana said in a harsh whisper, "I could tell my men to charge, and some of them might even do it, but what can we even do against them?" She made to continue, but stopped herself.
Ducerain stepped towards them, glancing towards the two regiments of ryders as he spoke. "We might be heavily armoured, but get past that and we get hurt as easily as any other. But we won't slow down because of injuries."
"Easier said than done, getting past that much metal." Lyriana said. They were all eyeing the ryders, but Jace and his subordinates were looking on, perhaps thinking the townsfolk were on the verge of surrender.
Alarant turned in his saddle and looked behind him. His own knights were steady, but the townsfolk were jittery, glancing at the tunnel behind them, the enemy and the people around them and next to them in quick succession. More people were coming out of the tunnel, either joining the group of civilians or standing in the group of spears, increasing the confusion.
"Lyriana, do you have a knife?" He asked and turned his mount around, trotting into the middle of the space created between his own knights and the spears of the townsfolk.
Lyriana stood for a moment in confusion then fumbled about her person and handed him a hunting knife in a black leather sheath. "What do you need it for?" She asked as he received the knife.
Alarant drew himself up and looked to the townsfolk. Sensing his gaze upon them, they looked back, their nervous glances pausing in their jitters to focus on Alarant de Lereyne.
Alarant spoke loud and clear. "I will not lie to you, nor attempt to brush off the threat you face. I was the one that took you to this city, and now I am the one that has put you in this grave situation. If we surrender, you will all live, but you will return to the city. I cannot say for what purpose your men and wives and children have been taken away, but I can say that the Marquis is a nefarious man. You will be alive, but you will not be safe."
The crowd stirred. Some grew panicked, and some raised fists at Alarant. As jeers and shouts rose from the crowd, Alarant took the knife in one hand and laid the blade against the glove of his other. In a quick motion, he made a fist around the blade and drew it out. The front row of the townsfolk fell silent, and the rest followed suit when motes of Dust began to drift down from his hand. Unmaking his fist, the cut was plain to see, a scar of gold against the blue glow and armour.
"Or you can fight," He said, raising his voice to a shout, "I will not lie. If you fight, some of you will not live to see another day. It will be a hard fight. But it is the only way for you to return to your homes, to your lives. I cannot order any of you to fight. I can only ask."
The crowd had fallen silent during his speech, and that silence lingered. For a moment Alarant feared he had lost them, but then Lyriana, daughter of Joalor, stepped past him and thrust her spear into the air. In a heartbeat, the townsfolk of Ariana's Bend followed suit. Lyriana's spear was lowered and thrust upwards again, and this time more people followed. A shout went up. It held no words, just sound, a declaration that they would fight.
Alarant turned about as another shout went up. Bomenn Gralis shouted the order to form up, and Alarant's knights formed a wedge behind him. Jace de Kirgaan must have sensed the shifting mood before the call went up, for he had drawn his longsword and his ryders were beginning their charge. This was it. The next moments would decide the fate of House Lereyne and the towns of the Amber Plains alike.
Alarant lifted his battle-hammer and swung it forwards, calling his own knights to the charge. There would be no time to gain any speed, but the act alone would embolden them to the fight. Barely a heartbeat later, he heard a great shout behind him as the townsfolk surged forwards, Lyriana trying to use their mass of spears to keep Alarant's rear safe from the Jace's superior numbers. With a crash of metal, Alarant and Jace's ryders collided. Spear-blades screamed against metal and their mounts howled as weapons found their way past the armour into the essence beneath. The creatures felt no pain, only the frustration of being wounded. One or two ryders from each side punched through the melee to circle around from the other side, adding to the chaos. Alarant caught a couched spear against the right of his shield and exploited the opening with a savage blow from his hammer. The metal of his opponent's shoulder-armour buckled and they could not raise their shield in time to block the second swing at their mask. It flew off with a dull clang, showing a swirling mass of blue motes within the armour. Their mount shoved at Alarant's and they got their shield up so they could retreat.
Alarant had just enough time to look around him to see the halberd descending towards his head, but it slammed into his right shoulder as he ducked in his saddle to avoid the blow. Jace's lieutenant, Halbard, had found him in the melee. Alarant blocked the following swing and struck out at Halbard, scoring a blow on the lieutenant's arm, but his hammer made little impact. Halbard tried to step away, to create space to take advantage of his halberd's reach, but the press of the fighting and the bulky mounts roaring and pushing prevented the maneuver. A thrust of the halberd scared the side of Alarant's breastplate, to which Alarant retaliated by flipping his hammer and ramming the narrow point through Halbard's elbow point.
"My lord!" Bomenn Gralis called out and charged Halbard, striking at the man's mask with his spear. Motes of golden dust ran down Halbard's armour after the strike and the lieutenant swung his halberd as he tried to retreat behind their line.
Given a moment of calm in the fighting around him, Alarant looked around at the battle. His own knights were holding well despite being outnumbered and the townsfolk were to thank for that. Their cluster of spears had spread out and connected with Alarant's rear, enabling his knights to focus on the front without immediate fear of being flanked. But the townsfolk were paying for their assistance; Jace's ryders were better trained and armoured and for every ryder that retreated or was brought down, easily half a dozen townsfolk were struck to the ground and another half-dozen began losing heart.
A cry went up from Lyriana's fighters and the townsfolk pointed east and west. Alarant followed their eyes and saw two further regiments of ryders approaching, one from each direction. Alarant's heart sank. The fight had been possible against Jace's 40, but reinforcements would end the battle in an instant.
"Your orders, my lord?" Bomenn asked. He had seen the oncoming ryders too.
"Withdraw. Retreat to the tunnel entrance, maybe we can hold the line if we narrow it." Alarant replied.
"As you say, my lord." Bomenn replied, though his lieutenant hesitated for a moment. The withdrawal was a false hope, and Alarant knew it even before he spoke. They would simply help draw the trap tighter around themselves, truly cutting off any escape, but he saw no other way. Even if the entirety of their force could band together and punch through Jace's line, the townsfolk would never escape their pursuers on foot. Alarant and his knights could escape, but an escape at the cost of the lives of the townsfolk was no escape at all.
Bomenn shouted the order and Alarant's knights began retreating as they fought, trying to keep their opponents at bay while avoiding being surrounded and trapped. Grellin, a knight that had been with Alarant since before the Calamity, had his mount struck out from under him as he tried to keep up, and before Alarant or Bomenn could turn any forces to his rescue, Jace had personally struck him down, cutting through Grellin's neck with his longsword.
Before long, Alarant had placed his knights throughout Lyriana's line, shoring up the line at places and providing anchor points. Jace had reformed his own line, but had not yet charged home, much to Alarant's confusion. He already outnumbered them and was about to double his forces. Why would he not press his advantage?
Alarant leaned in his saddle and called one of Lyriana's scouts to fetch the captain. When she arrived, she had a bandage across her forehead and lines of dried blood on her face to attest to the injury. She also carried a spear and shield in her hands, the shield scored by blades. "Yes, Alarant?"
"How are the townsfolk doing?" Alarant asked. He could not imagine the answer would be very positive, but he wanted to know regardless.
The militia captain turned around slowly. "Some are hurt, most are scared. Some have died. It's dire straits, Alarant."
"Is everyone out of the tunnel?"
Lyriana turned back to look at him. "Yes, we're all out, ready for the slaughter," She retorted, then sighed and closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Can they run?"
Lyriana looked at him again, narrowing her eyes. "Aye, they can run. Run for their lives. What are you thinking, Alarant?" The question was asked with curiosity, not sarcasm.
Alarant pointed towards Jace's lines with a wave of his head. "I don't know why, but these reinforcements have caused some confusion in our enemy. If we push now, I think we can get through one of their regiments and out on the other side."
"And then what? Outrun those beasts on foot?" Lyriana replied and looked at the enemy line.
"Better than waiting for certain defeat here, I should say. My men and I will stay as the rearguard, slow their pursuit. If you can get into a forest, that should impede their mounts." Alarant said. It was a reckless plan, but the alternative was a slow defeat or outright surrender.
"You would be outnumbered 8 to 1, it would be suicide." Lyriana said, shock clear in her tone.
Alarant drew himself up in his saddle and gripped his hammer tightly. "We are always outnumbered. It seems to be a constant. Ready your people as best you can, Lyriana. We have to strike quickly, if at all."
Lyriana gave him a searching look then sighed and went back into the cluster of townsfolk, calling messengers to her and sending them away again just as quickly. Alarant did likewise, calling his two closest knights and sending them down the line.
"What now, Alarant?"
He turned around to see his wife and his father behind him. Lisabelle had some scrapes on her armour, but otherwise his wife looked unharmed. Ducerain had not been in the fighting, and Alarant realised that his father would have to go with the townsfolk. Even with the knights they had lost in the initial fighting, they had no mounts to spare, and his father was no fighter.
He reached out to take his wife's hand. "I am so sorry, my love. As things stand, we won't get to Vallaris. I have led us to our deaths."
Lisabelle took his hand and looked him in the eye. "Do not be sorry, my love. You followed your heart and your conscience, and I would have it no other way."
For lack of a heart, Alarant's soul swelled in his chest. He looked to Ducerain. "Father, can I ask one last favour of you, from one father to another?"
"Name it." Ducerain said without hesitation.
Alarant indicated towards the box strapped to Lisabelle's saddle. "When we break through, go with the townsfolk until you are safe, then go to Vallaris with Anna. Give Emperor Jessari our letter. Make sure the Marquis pays for his misdeeds." As he spoke, Alarant took the letter from within his armour and held it out to his father.
Ducerain accepted it regretfully. "I would prefer if you could deliver this yourself, Alarant."
"As would I, father, but my place is elsewhere. If, somehow, we are victorious here, we will make for Vallaris with all haste, but do not wait for us. Anna and the letter are far more important." Alarant said. Lisabelle nodded at his side.
"When you see her again," Lisabelle said, her voice choking slightly, "Give her our love, and our apologies. We couldn't be there for her."
Lyriana returned with a resolute look. "They're ready, or as ready as they could ever be." The captain eyed the reinforcements that were still approaching. They were only a few minutes out now. "It's now or never."
"May good fortune be with you, Alarant and Lisabelle. I could not be prouder of the two of you, let there be no doubt of that." Ducerain said. Alarant pressed a fist to his chest and did his best to hold his composure. Lisabelle took her sword from her belt and handed it to the old scholar before joining Alarant's knights in their formation. Ducerain looked at his son's back for a moment before joining the townsfolk in the centre of Lyriana's formation. He kept a tight hold on the box and wondered what he could tell his grandchild when she awoke.
Alarant gripped his hammer and looked at Jace. The opposing ryders had returned to their semi-circle formation, but arrayed in the opposite direction, the curve facing them. The formation confused him, but he had no time to understand it. He twisted in his saddle until he could look behind him and at the knights around him, and, with the thought that this might well be his last speech, he raised his voice.
"Knights of Auriga! Long have you served me, and you have done me proud by your service. I ask of you one last deed. Remember your oaths!" As he continued, Lisabelle, Bomenn and the knights repeated his chant.
"Protect the innocent! Safeguard the weak! Swear by your oaths! And where evil and wickedness shows its face, beat it like a drum so that their kind may know of your coming and know fear!"
Alarant raised his hammer and his knights followed suit, thrusting their spears in the air. "Charge!"
He pushed his mount to a gallop as his knights echoed his shout with a wordless roar and surged after him. Spears caught the scant light of the day as they lowered and the roar of their charge carried them forwards. Jace growled and shouted for a countercharge, but his ryders could barely get moving before Alarant de Lereyne and his knights slammed into them. The second cacophany of metal sounded that day, followed swiftly by stomping boots and clanging spears as the townsfolk made their own charge. Lyriana had called their charge alongside Alarant's, the spirits of the townsfolk lifted by Alarant's speech. Even Chief Latega, protected as she was at the centre of their cluster, echoed the shout of the charge.
This time, Alarant deliberately aimed his charge in Jace's direction. Their mounts nearly collided at the apex of the charge while Jace narrowly blocked Alarant's first swing. The ryder's line buckled under the charge of Alarant's knights, but did not immediately break. Most of his knights were fighting to finish the breakthrough, but when the fighting momentarily pushed him and Jace apart, Alarant glanced at the approaching reinforcements. They were closer than he thought they would be. Either he had misjudged the distance, or they had sped up. They were moments from joining the fray. They would shatter the cluster of townsfolk like so much dust and then surround Alarant's knights.
Only, Alarant realised, they were not aiming for the townsfolk. A captain was in front of the regiment, urging them toward Jace's ryders. Now that they were close, Alarant could even recognise some of the knights.
"Charge!," Sarell Kelkstein shouted at the head of her regiment, "Shatter them!" Along with her were the knights that Alarant had sent on the diversion. 28 all told, they slammed into Jace's flank. His confusion concerning their allegiance was why he had held his line in that strange way, and it saved Jace's ryders from complete obliteration. Instead they immediately withdrew in the face of superior numbers, for Ristel de Kelsira, perhaps wrought by indecision or guilt, had not immediately come to Jace's aid on the first charge.
Alarant shouted a greeting to Sarell and called for the knights to form a line to defend the townsfolk. Jace's ryders likewise reformed, with Lady de Kelsira relinquishing command of her ryders to Jace. The townsfolk reached the line of Alarant's knights and pushed on, making for the line of green on the horizon. They would be safer in the woods and plains beyond the wasteland that surrounded Calimdar, and hopefully they could withstand the winter in their towns and fend off what attacks the Marquis would send their way, unless Martin de Suluzzo also knew about the letter to the Emperor and spent the winter fortifying the city. But that was a worry for another time and another man, Alarant reasoned, for this day was not over. The other regiment approaching from the west had joined up with Jace, giving him the numbers advantage yet again.
"What is the plan, Lord de Lereyne?" Sarell Kelkstein asked, holding her own sword at the ready. Their line followed the townsfolk as they marched, arrayed two knights deep to defend against a charge.
Alarant indicated the townsfolk behind him with a wave of his hammer. "We get them to the safety of the woods and then we hold off pursuit as long as we can. Any survivors, make for Vallaris. The safety of the townsfolk is our highest priority."
The lady knight nodded and repeated it to her own ryders. As the townsfolk marched onwards, the line of knights swayed and followed, keeping a broad line between them and Jace's ryders.
With the lull in the fighting, Alarant and Lisabelle shared a moment. Neither spoke, instead they held hands, thinking of their daughter's future. Hoping she would have one at all.
With a horn-blast, Jace's ryders began to move. As they picked up speed they fanned out, ending in a line 1 ryder deep, broader than Alarant's knights could hope to safely counter.
Lyriana looked behind her. She had kept herself at the rear of the group so that she could observe the fighting to come and arrange their fighters, so she saw Alarant's knights fan out. It was unsafe and would weaken their line, but she could see no other way to keep their pursuers at bay. The woodline was now so close that townsfolk were breaking out of the group, through the protesting militia, to sprint the final distance. Birds flew out from between the trees, shaking snow loose during their escape, a welcome sight of wildlife after the sterility of Calimdar.
Alarant's father stood at the woodline as the townsfolk streamed past towards safety, looking back at the line of knights. Lyriana wished, and not for the first time, that their kind had faces rather than metal masks. She had no idea how to read them. Rather, Lyriana followed his cue and looked back behind them at the knights. In a moment the lines of knights would meet, and Lyriana saw Alarant turn in his saddle to look on at the two of them. He raised his hammer in a silent salute and then turned, bringing the hammer down in a signal to countercharge. With a clash of metal and shouts, the two lines collided and battle was joined. A part of Lyriana wanted to stay, to witness this battle which was likely to be Alarant's last, but doing so would invalidate the point of it. She respected Alarant de Lereyne too much for that. The last she saw of him, Alarant was locked in battle with two opposing ryders wielding a longsword and a halberd, parrying with his hammer and wheeling his mount around to distract and disturb the movements of his opponents.
"Come on, let's go. We have a long ways to go." She said, turning to look at Ducerain.
The scholar nodded without returning her look. "Yes, we do."
With that, the two of them passed through the woodline into the forest where the townsfolk were taking a moment to breathe and celebrate. Lyriana hopped up on the nearest perch and clapped loudly. One of her scouts handed her a signalling horn which she accepted. After one blast, the crowd went quiet and looked at her.
"Do not celebrate just yet. Save that energy for the road, for it will be long. Only when we are in our homes can we truly celebrate. We continue on!," She shouted, "And take care not to lose each other in the forest!"
A while later, when they had left the woodline far behind them and Lyriana was certain none of her own people had become lost, she fell into step beside Ducerain. The scholar walked stoically forwards, not saying a word to his fellow travellers. He had strapped Lisabelle's sword into his belt and he carried the box with Alarant's daughter like it was a holy relic.
She had thought on how to start this conversation, but ultimately had found no avenue that seemed sensible. So instead she went straight down the middle. "If you have no objections, Sir de Lereyne, I will be joining you on your journey to Vallaris."
Ducerain turned his head to look at her, and for once she thought she read an emotion; surprise. "I have no objections. It will perhaps lengthen the journey in time, but companions are always welcome. Though, I must ask; why?"
The notion had come to Lyriana before she knew why she wanted to do it. "Despite what he might think, I owe Alarant a debt. If he is dead now, I cannot repay that in any other way than to see his daughter, and message, safely to her destination."
Ducerain was silent for a moment and the only sound from him was the crunching of snow and leaves. "Thank you. It is good to hear that Alarant engendered such loyalty."