Gerard kept the Smurfs under cover so they could not be discovered by strangers, but they peered over the pot's rim to get a look at the situation they were in. The newcomers made their way to the center of the village to a large hall where a large black wolf-dog stood next to a young man in a dark blue tunic with grey hose, riding a dun mare. Not a young man, though! Gerard recognized the youth's flame-red hair.
"Sabina! You're safe! And…different."
He had only seen his cousin dressed as a noble lady; here she was with sunburned cheeks and shockingly short hair, covered in mud and dressed like a boy. Was she a prisoner? Why was she dressed so?
"What in on Earth is going on here?"
"You came for me," she said sheepishly.
"I'm interested in hearing that explanation now!" Gerard replied.
After the whole convoluted story was told to Gerard's satisfaction, the matter of the approaching army still loomed over the village.
"The good news is, we now have your knights to help defend us," Johan said, walking with Gerard and Edelhart back towards the main gate. They had left Sabina at her guard post in front of the Hall.
"That's not all; I brought…other help, too."
"Oh? …Ah, I see!" Johan replied, looking at the covered clay pot.
Hearing how her cousin had risked his life and left his kingdom to find her took some of the wind from Sabina's sails. Gerard had barely hidden his anger with her for deceiving him and causing him to inadvertently leading enemy forces to their hideout, placing everyone in danger. She knew he was already self-conscious about looking foolish and inexperienced as a ruler. She had made a mess of everything again.
The army came in the early hours of the morning, after the rising sun burned away the fog and left the fields and fens around the village bare and vulnerable.
The village army had barely slept and were ready for them. Archers, their skills honed hunting game in the marshes, stood on the hastily constructed ramparts, and welcomed Gerlach and Lothar's men with a volley of arrows. It did little good, but it showed the army that they were serious about defending the little village. The army fired back, also with little effect.
"Go get the battering ram. I was afraid this would happen," Said Lothar, realizing that taking this village would not be as easy to take as he's assumed. Damn them, why were they fighting back when they were clearly outnumbered? This wasn't the King's castle, did they really think they stood a chance?
"Do you think they're giving up?" Gerard asked, watching the army re-arrange itself all of a sudden.
"That doesn't make any sense; we've barely put up a fight," Johan said, eyeing Lothar from the palisade above the gates.
"No…they've got a ram," said Edelhart as if he were observing a game of chess.
"Fall back! Those of you who can, mount up and organize the pikemen! That gate won't hold for long!"
Men ran frantically, exchanging bows for wooden pikes and hand to hand weapons, whatever was available.
Gerard took the opportunity to slip behind a wall and retrieve his friends from the jar he had hidden them in.
"Clockworks, I need you…they're going to crash the gates. Do what you can, don't just worry about me, there's a lot of people here who need defending." The two mechanical smurfs saluted in agreement and ran to the gates.
"What should we do, your highness?" Papa and Handy asked.
Go to Sabina and Peewit and the wolf. It's not safe here.
A loud thud came from the gates. They were made of green oak logs, sturdy a material as could be found in this part of the world, but no match for an iron-tipped ram for long.
The gates split open with a sickening crack, and the army poured into the village square, led by Gerlach, Lothar and several other mounted men, all with swords drawn. They were met by Johan, Edelhart, and Gerard, behind a formation of pikemen. Surprised by an armed organized defense, the first wave of mounted men and horses ran directly into the pikes, stopping them dead in their tracks. The first pikemen fell back, and fresh ones with fresh pikes fell into place to meet more men.
It was keeping the enemy at bay, but it would not last long. There were too many of Gerlach's men, and pikemen only worked effectively when in tight formation and not surrounded. More soldiers poured through the gate. Gerlach directed them to surround the pikemen and seize or kill the knights.
Lothar, who had no head for strategy or battle beyond simple bullying and murder, maneuvered his horse though the fray. I must not fail my Lord. It's my hide if I screw this up. Where is that thrice damned weapon? In the most heavily guarded building, of course. The princess was probably hidden there, too, along with whatever else was valuable here. Let Johan and Peewit defend this idiotic rabble, he knew what he had to look for.
Two Smurfs ran to Sabina, who sat on Sibylla craning her neck to try and hear what was going on since her view was obscured by buildings.
"Smurfs! What in Heaven's name are you doing here?"
We came with Gerard. He sent us to find you; the gate's been broken through and Sir Gerlach's men have gotten into the village. Johan and Gerard and Edelhart are fighting them now.
"Oh my god; we have to go help them! Maenad! Peewit!"
The two ran out of the main hall, along with two stout village women.
"Did you say the gates have been broken?" one said, fearfully.
"They have. I'm going to go help Johan. Maenad, will you come too, or will you stay here?" Maenad trotted as close as she could get to Sibylla, who skittered away, nervously.
"I'll stay here, with the Smurfs. I have a…hunch of what I can do, should worse come to worse." Peewit said, taking the Smurfs into his hands.
"The whats?" Said the other village woman, younger than the first, her hair done up in a kerchief and holding Sabina's bow and quiver.
"Never mind. Let's go, Sibylla!" Sabina said, taking the bow and strapping on the quiver.
Maenad raced to the scene of battle with Sabina galloping behind. It was going badly for her friends, and she let herself slide back into the mindset of the mercenary she had been the last time she was here, when she had been against these people instead of defending them. It was as if a spell enveloped her. The world seemed to flow slowly by as she tore through the lines, laying into humans and sending horses fleeing in terror, dragging or throwing their confused riders.
She was a cursed one, here to conquer and nothing more. A soldier fell to the cobblestones beside her with a thump. She turned, and bared the curved white blades of her fangs. Should she kill him? Her old self would have, unarmed or not. A dimly remembered ancient hymn drifted through her mind…
You are the Bull of the Sky, who shatters at will, who lives on the being of every god, who eats their entrails, even of those who come with their bodies full of magic from the Island of Flame…
"Maenad, no! He's defenseless!" Sabina's voice broke Maenad's reverie and she backed away from the fear-struck man. A boy, really, not much older than her friends. Yes. Go help the others. Stay focused…
Edelhart watched their men start to be overwhelmed by the better trained and better equipped soldiers, as he feared would happen. They would probably kill everyone who was not taken prisoner; Noblemen like these did not show rebels mercy once beaten. The first battle he ever fought in had ended in such a defeat, and the results of that loss still haunted his dreams. Then, as now, he fought alongside his family.
He couldn't let that happen again. He took a tighter grip on his sword and charged deeper into the fray. That man, the one in the best armor had to be this sir Gerlach, the leader of the army. He galloped to him and their swords clashed. Gerlach was out of shape and not nearly as skilled as Edelhart, and quickly found himself outmatched. He tried a few underhanded tricks, but the older knight brushed them aside.
Screams broke their concentration momentarily, as the front line parted in the wake of a bloodstained beast, followed by a pale boy with red hair on a horse, holding a drawn bow. Sabina and the werewolf had come. Against orders, but from the looks of things no one dared go near the snapping huge jaws of the black wolf.
Gerlach took Edelhart's brief pause as an opening. Edelhart was facing away from him, and did not see the slim dagger that Gerlach slid out of his glove and thrust between the plates of armor and rings of mail. Edelhart stiffened, eyes wide with surprise, then narrowing with anger. He fought back more fiercely, but it was clear the wound was draining him fast. This man will kill me if he gets the chance. He hasn't got an honorable bone in his body. Edelhart was soon knocked from his horse. He struggled to rise, to reach his sword, but he could taste blood, and his labored breathing told him this could not end well. Gerlach dismounted, raising his sword to take his opponent's head off.
"Irrumator!" A rough voice snarled behind him. He paused to see a tiny woman in boys' clothes; unarmed, covered in blood, with wet black curls covering her face. Probably a village wench come to fight after her father and been killed.
"A girl! That's whose come to save you," he laughed at Edelhart, and turned back to face him, but before he could raise his sword, a large lupine muzzle closed on his neck and shook him like squealing rabbit.
Edelhart wanted to run. He knew in a logical part of his mind that she would not hurt him and had just saved his life (however short that was going to be) but seeing her attack a grown man like a ragdoll brought back all his fears and battle-honed instincts. He couldn't stand, though. He tried to speak as she stood over him, eyes blazing like the sun, but it felt as if there was a weight on his chest. Inexplicably, she shifted again, and stared at him. Or rather, stared through him.
This man…who is he? He was…so familiar, in the dark grey cloak and the breastplate with the Capricorn sigil of Legio Undevigesima. And the blood, black hair and cold pale skin. Grey on black on white was all she could see, like paint splashed across her field of vision.
"Tu quis es?" but the man did not answer. A relative, she thought…a husband or a lover or a son…and the barbarians…gods help her, why could she not remember?
She mustered all her strength and lifted the dying knight over her shoulders, then shifted so he was across her back. And she ran though the shattered gates for the woods, wherever there was cover, ran as if being chased by demons.
Maenad's battle hymn is actually Utterance 273 of the ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, known as the "Cannibal Hymn". I have altered it slightly for obvious reasons.