Chapter Twenty Five

The Morning Ambush

ANNA

You've changed without even knowing it. And that, is far worse.

Anna hadn't been able to shake those words from her head since Duke Helmsley had spat them at her last night. As much as she wanted to chalk it up to the traitor's spite, she couldn't get rid of the niggling feeling at the back of her mind that there could be some truth to those words. She'd spent the night tossing and turning in her bedroll while Kristoff, who'd failed to get her to spill what was on her mind, had snored in exhaustion beside her.

Her husband had gone to bed gruff and worried about her, and that made Anna feel even worse. But she didn't feel like she was ready to share what the Duke said. Not yet at least. The possibility that it could be true…she just didn't want to accept it. But was Helmsley right? In her efforts to end the war, had she unwittingly become a ruler with an iron fist without knowing it?

Scrabbling at the tent flap woke her from her half-conscious state, and she sat up in a hurry. Blinking, she glanced at Kristoff who was already stirring, then back at the tent flap as she stood up. What now?

Anna began dressing, feeling lethargy sweep over her as she did so. Instantly, she wished she'd ignored the Duke's scathing remarks and just gotten a good night's sleep. "Who is it?" She called out in a voice that denoted that she was in no mood to deal with anything today.

"Hayley, Your Majesty." The young secretary responded urgently. "May I enter?"

Anna's assistant had busied herself with the paperwork in the past few weeks and for a while, Anna had completely forgotten that Hayley was still travelling with them. She looked over at Kristoff, who was already buttoning up his shirt as he sat on the bedroll.

Anna finished wearing her shirt. "Come in."

Hayley burst into the royal couple's tent, already looking frazzled and worried. "Your Majesty. Your Royal Highness." She blurted out. "Field Marshal Frederick wanted me to inform you that the Imperial Horde is preparing to attack. The enemy ranks are forming up right now."

"What?" Anna stared at her. The Imperial Horde had abided by certain rules of civilised warfare thus far, such as not attacking an enemy in their sleep. But it looked like things had just changed.

"Now?" Kristoff frowned, tugging on his overcoat and tossing Anna hers.

"Yes." Hayley said urgently. Her eyes went to Anna. "The Field Marshal has already begun deploying the Coalition into a defensive position on the hill overlooking the valley."

Thankfully, the Coalition had made camp on favourable terrain at the end of their march. It put an entire hill between them and the Imperial Horde, which were still in the valley behind them. If the Coalition could quickly snag the crest of the hill before the Imperial Horde could take it, they would have a strong defensive position to stave off the enemy. If. The Imperial Horde led by Field Marshal Kane was quicker in battle than it'd ever been under the command of General Hydrech.

Anna tugged on her great overcoat and ran a hand through her bedraggled hair. There was no time to spruce up on appearances. "Lead the way." She told Hayley.

Her assistant led her and Kristoff out of their tent and into a sea of scrambling humanity. Soldiers from all divisions clutching their weapons and packs were making a beeline for the hill, already drilled and preempted by their generals for a possibility such as this one.

Anna, Kristoff and Hayley squeezed through the tide of soldiers upslope towards the crest of the hill. The sun had barely risen, and Anna could still see darkness dominating on the horizon. As usual, it was still snowing heavily, though thankfully, the wind wasn't in their faces this morning.

Some of the infantry battalions had already begun to form up on the slope of the hill, while others were still manoeuvring to find their spots, the lieutenants and sergeants shouting for their men to get into formation. They formed up in columns, three battalions abreast on the slope. These men were prepared to spring into action should the enemy come too close to the crest of the hill.

Both light and heavy cavalry from the various divisions were already in place at the flanks should things turn ugly. Marquess Horatio was already among his yellow-uniformed dragoons, yelling at them to get them revved up as always. The Xerflorian cavalry in particular had taken heavy losses, with their mounts collapsing from exhaustion, the intense cold and the lack of food over the past week, and though there were still enough to help hold the Imperial Horde at bay, there was not nearly as many as Anna would've liked.

Reaching the crest of the hill, Anna dismissed Hayley and found Frederick giving orders to the general staff. As always, he seemed unaffected or thrown off by the early morning ambush. A poised look written on his face, he dismissed the generals after they saluted him. As the generals streamed past Anna and Kristoff, they hurriedly saluted and excused themselves to return to their divisions.

"Good morning, Your Majesty." Frederick greeted Anna with no trace of fear in his voice. He turned to Kristoff. "Sir."

"Tell me you have this one in the bag." Anna breathed heavily as she stopped before Frederick. She felt like she was getting tired a lot more easily these days. "Tell me you can stop them."

"We have a plan." Frederick confirmed.

Anna exhaled, and surveyed the crest. At the edge of the hill's crest was an enormous tree that was being used as a left marker, where the line of artillery guns were being deployed. One battery of artillery was already deploying, the artillerymen working double time to manoeuvre the heavy guns into position. Six cannons pointed down into the valley below, made up of two eight pounders and four nine pounders. Each gun was manned by two gunners, six soldiers and four artillery officers.

Standing a short distance away were the Northuldra and the Danish skirmishers, who would begin the defense against the Imperial Horde who were already at the base of the hill. Their never ending column of battalions seemed to snake as far as the eye could see, winding through the half-forested plains that the Coalition had crossed yesterday.

"We can't hold them forever." Kristoff stared down at the enemy below. "At some point we're going to have to retreat and let a rear guard do the rest."

"Agreed." Frederick said. "Which is why I sent a messenger to the League of Sorcerers requesting a favour."

"Good, good." Anna said in relief. With the League aiding them on the frontlines, the Coalition would stand a far better chance of surviving another day.

"Dequin." Frederick called to the Einsfeltai artillery colonel overseeing the battery. "Are the men ready? The enemy has begun the ascent."

"Sir," The colonel snapped a salute. "I'm sorry but we need more time. The gunners are still fetching the powder magazines."

"Granted, but make haste. Let me know when you're ready." Frederick nodded, and turned to the skirmishers waiting nearby. He gave the skirmishing officers a signal.

The Northuldra and the Danish raised their weapons with a war cry that held a hint of weariness and battle fatigue, but determined nonetheless. They went over the edge of the hill in loose order to meet their attackers, rifles primed and in pairs. The Northuldra and Danish mingled, spacing out over the slope of the hill dotted with large boulders for them to crouch behind for cover. Within a minute, the cracking of musketry filled the air.

Kristoff by her side, Anna watched as the artillerymen returned with the powder magazines, and the gunners began going about their business, priming the cannons and working together to load the pieces like a well-oiled machine. She glanced down again at the battle. Though the musketry was obscuring the slope in thick white smoke, she could see that the Imperial Horde was still advancing, albeit more slowly.

"Kane's not even getting them to form in line." Anna raised her voice above the sounds of the muskets going off. With the enemy still formed in column, they made easy targets for the cannons and the skirmishers.

"He doesn't care how many men he loses. They're just cannon fodder to him," Frederick replied. "He has an entire field army and all day to make this a battle of attrition."

"That's not going to happen."

Anna turned to see Vonco, Cova and Rikhard, three of the League's veteran sorcerers, standing behind her and Kristoff. Her heart soared, a smile involuntarily forming on her face. She felt like a weight had suddenly been lifted off her shoulders.

"Thank you for coming." Frederick turned to greet them. "I know I'm asking a lot but we could use your help again, in any capacity."

"We've got this." Vonco assured the Field Marshal. "Just buy us enough time to get our guys into position."

"Absolutely." Frederick nodded in gratitude and turned back to give new orders to Colonel Dequin.

"You're a sight for sore eyes." Anna said to the three sorcerers. The first cannon made its opening move, the deafening boom at such close range that it caused Anna to jump.

"Thank you." Kristoff added in relief. There was a time when he would've rather taken up arms and charged into battle himself rather than rely on sorcerers to do the heavy lifting. But things had changed quite a fair bit since then and he'd come to accept that this was the kind of world that they all lived in now.

"We'll rally the fighters." Cova jerked a thumb over her shoulders. "They're already waiting to raise some hell." With that, the three sorcerers turned and went back down to fetch the battle-ready sorcerers.

The enemy cannons answered with their own twelve pounders from the valley, the huge round shot going wide and crashing into the side of the hill. Two more of the Einsfeltai nine pounders opened one after another, discharging steel into the enemy ranks below. Soon, the entire battlefield was a cacophony of belching round shot, musketry and the screams and shouts of the soldiers still engaged in the heart of the smoke.

The sorcerers came back, this time forty more with them. All of them had various abilities and knacks, and they immediately streamed past Anna and Kristoff, weaving in between the artillery guns and moving downhill to support the Northuldra and Danish skirmishers in combat. A couple stayed behind, perched on the crest of the hill to lay down long range fire together with the cannons. The defacto heads, Vonco, Cornelius and a couple of the other senior sorcerers, stayed behind with Anna and Kristoff.

"When are you planning to sound the retreat?" Vonco finally asked after they'd watched the battle for a good ten minutes. It felt like an eternity, with every minute seeming to drag out into an hour.

"Soon, I hope," Kristoff eyed Anna.

"Yeah, soon." Anna cast a quick glance over her shoulder. The majority of the Coalition was still waiting anxiously on the rise of the hill, all ready to turn and beat a hasty retreat. No one wanted to die today. She turned back to the League's sorcerers. "We can't hold them forever."

"Damn right we can't." Cova sucked in breath through her teeth as she saw the enemies advancing through the smoke. "We're going to be routed sooner or later."

"I have an idea." Cornelius - the usually quiet giant - finally spoke up. He stood towering over the rest of them, reminding Anna somewhat of Maui. With thick arms, broad shoulders and legs built like pipes of steel, he was a force to be reckoned with.

"What is it?" Anna asked.

Cornelius eyed the single huge tree at the edge of the hill. Anna followed his gaze, and immediately caught his drift.

"Surely you're not suggesting…" she trailed off.

He nodded silently.

"It could work." Kristoff noted after a long moment. "A tree that big will clear out a whole lot of the enemy and bottleneck the valley. It'll slow them down enough for us to beat a hasty retreat. Put some distance between us and them."

Hesitantly, Anna sized the tree up and down. It was ridiculously tall and thick, rising so high into the air that Anna could barely make out the top. It was so enormous like something out of an ancient fairy tale. The trunk looked like one of the famous pillars of the Bastrusian Colosseum that was said to be one of the thickest and sturdiest structures in the world. A tree like that would really deal the enemy some damage and create an obstacle that would give them a hard time breaking through. With the narrow valley walls hemming the Imperial Horde in, the only way to continue their pursuit of the Coalition would be to hack the massive tree trunk in two to make way for their column to pass through and ascend the hill.

"Frederick!" Kristoff shouted and beckoned the Field Marshal over. "We have an idea."

"Sir?"

"That tree over there," Vonco jerked a thumb in its direction. "Cornelius here thinks he can dislodge it. Tumble it down the hill on top of the enemy."

Frederick raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"We're grasping at straws here but that'd give them one hell of an obstacle." Kristoff said. "Create some distance between us and the enemy while we retreat. By the time they get that tree trunk out of the way, we'll be half a day ahead of them or maybe more."

"It…sounds feasible." Frederick glanced at the young man who towered over the rest of them. "Are you up for it?"

Cornelius nodded in answer.

"Then it's up to you, Ma'am." Frederick turned to Anna. "It's your call."

It's a good plan. Anna knew it was, but there was doubt in her mind. What if she was wrong? What if the trunk would do nothing to slow them down? With the Coalition's backs turned, the Imperial Horde could clamber over the hill and slaughter them from the rear. Was this a wrong call?

Anna blinked round at the faces before her. Her mind whirled. Duke Helmsley's words rang in her mind. You ruined everything. Now look at us. Running like dogs from the Exonians. You're leading us to our doom.

"Anna?" Kristoff turned to face her.

She stared back blankly at him. Have I really seized control of the Coalition to the point where their entire fate hinges on my decision?

Kristoff turned to Frederick. "Do it. We're running out of time."

"Yes, Sir." Frederick snapped a crisp salute and briskly marched back to the Einsfeltai Colonel. His voice was distant in Anna's ears over the thundering of the cannons. "Switch to double shotted canister." Anna overheard Frederick saying. "Make a hole in their column."

Frederick then turned back to the sorcerers. "Use the tree. When you're ready, give the signal and tell your people to pull back. The skirmishers will follow."

The sorcerers sprang into action, with Cornelius and Vonco heading towards the tree while the other senior sorcerers headed down to the battlefield to relay the new orders. Meanwhile, Anna just stood rooted to her spot, passively watching everything happen before her.

"Anna!" Kristoff shook her shoulders a little roughly, breaking her out of her stupor. "Are you alright?"

"Huh?" Anna blinked, looking at Kristoff blankly.

"You blanked out on us." He looked at her worriedly. "What happened to you?"

"N-nothing." She lied, doing her best to shove Helmsley's words to the back of her mind. She couldn't afford to crumble now. Damn it, get your head in the game. Straightening up, she looked at Kristoff. "Sorry. I'm back now."

He looked at her, concern in his eyes. But he shook his head. "We're going ahead with the plan. Cornelius is going to uproot the tree, and everyone's going to pull back. The tree's going to stall them in the valley and give us enough time to escape. We should prepare to pull back with the rest of the Coalition."

"No, wait." Anna insisted. "We have to see this. To know if it worked."

"And if it doesn't, we'll be the first ones to die in the coming onslaught." Kristoff argued.

"It won't make a difference if the plan fails." She said, jaw set. "Once we've committed to the retreat, it won't matter if we're at the bottom of the hill or right where we are. If the tree fails to stop their advance, nothing will."

Kristoff gave in muttering to himself in undertones, gazing out into the valley below. Anna followed his gaze.

The battlefield below was still embroiled with smoke, every bit as intense as the moment the battle first began. The skirmishers were working tirelessly in their pairs, supported by the sorcerers. Through the thick white smoke, there was a flash of sorcery every now and then when the sorcerers attacked together in conjunction with the Coalition's musketry. The enemy returned fire, still attempting to advance, but were cut down by hails of musketry, sorcery and the occasional eight or nine pound ball crashing through their column. But still, the Imperial Horde came, wave upon wave, slowly gaining ground and advancing up the hill. Bit by bit, they were winning.

Anna's jaw tightened and her stomach flopped. She glanced at Kristoff. If this plan failed, they were truly going to die. But at least they would die alongside each other. Shifting her glance to the tree, she watched as Cornelius drove his shoulder into the massive tree trunk again for what must have been the sixth or seventh time. Already, the tree was leaning to a side, having been ripped from its the roots by Cornelius' supernatural brute strength.

With a loud grunt, the young giant hurled himself against the tree again. It leaned even more out over the hill, looking like it was going to topple over at any moment. The cold blizzard winds blowing against it made the branches rattle, the entire tree shaking precariously over the edge of the hill. Just one more hit would dislodge the massive tree entirely.

Anna watched as Vonco gave Frederick a thumbs up, then waved at the sorcerers below the signal to retreat. A loud trumpet was blown, and the drumbeat for retreat was beaten. Within moments, the sorcerers began pouring up the hill, coming over the crest, followed by the skirmishers from the Northuldra and the Danish. Down on the other side of the hill, the Coalition's formed battalions half-turned and headed back down the hill in a disciplined but quick fashion. The retreat had begun.

Once the last of the skirmishers had cleared the cannons, Frederick shouted in a thundering voice. "On my signal at two hundred yards." He waited for the Exonians to continue clambering up the hill unhindered.

Those few seconds of waiting seemed to slow, and Anna could feel the world slowing as the enemy continued to advance. Her heart hammered sporadically in her chest even as Kristoff forced her to take a couple of steps back. Would the plan work? Or would the blood of the Coalition be on her hands just as Helmsley had prophesied?

"Fire!" Frederick roared.

The first cannon emptied double loaded canister shot into the ascending ranks of Exonians. The force at such close range blew a hole in the enemy column, spraying hundreds of lead balls into bodies. Flesh, blood and weapons flew, and the enemy advance was suddenly halted in its tracks. For a few moments, the world went silent.

"Again!"

The second cannon erupted, repeating the process. And then the third, then the fourth. By the time all six cannons had erupted, the Exonian column had been pushed back all the way to more than halfway down the hill, blood, weapons and body parts everywhere, the entire atmosphere still wreathed in smoke.

Frederick turned to Cornelius. "Now!"

The young giant rammed his full weight into the tree again and it finally dislodged from the ground. Down, down, down it tumbled and gained speed, and finally impacted the slope of the hill. Exonians were sent pinwheeling away or squashed as the tree began rolling down the hill, gathering speed and hurtling towards the rest of the column. The enormous tree squashed multitudes, but continued relentlessly. By the time the tree came to rest in between the narrow walls of the valley, the Exonians had been pushed back to before where they had started at the beginning of the day.

Anna heaved a huge sigh of relief as the shouts of victory filled the air. She involuntarily pumped a fist in the air and cheered as she, Kristoff and the rest began hastily retreating down the hill to rejoin the rest of the Coalition who had already begun to break camp. The plan had worked. By the looks of it, they'd just bought themselves a lead of half a day or more.