Адриан Голдсуорти: The Encircling Sea

‘Back!’ he yelled, ‘Back!’ because he knew that the relief would be short. He led them out past the buildings onto the open slope leading up to the lone hall where they held Genialis. They were only just in time, for a couple of men in black had appeared from another lane through the houses and could have got behind them.

‘In a line,’ Ferox shouted. ‘Here we make our stand.’ These youngsters were trained to fight as individuals, and with their small shields and inexperience he was not sure how long they would last in close slogging fights among the buildings. Here in the open they could fight as they had practised and prove themselves. Or they might just run away if the enemy came at them in a rush. Ferox was not sure, but reckoned that this was their best chance.

Three pirates came from the other lane, and they charged as soon as they saw the young warriors. One of the boys shouted something Ferox did not catch as he ran for the leader, and he wondered whether the lad was calling out his name or a taunt, but it did not matter when he ducked a wild hack and stabbed the pirate underneath his armour. Another boy, a little older than the first, slipped on the grass, and then gasped as the point of a gladius went through his armour and into his chest. He fell back, sobbing, the sword still in his body and pulled from the pirate’s grip. The redhead threw her last javelin, the point breaking through a pirate’s shield and sticking fast in his belt. She drew her sword and hacked the empty hand of the man who had lost his sword, then followed up, slicing into his leg just above the knee. He fell, and she strode past, going for the last man, who was struggling to drop his shield but could not because the spear would not move. The young woman’s face was contorted with hate as she spat at him and then hacked hard at his neck.

More pirates appeared, but these came with more caution. A whistle blew and Cniva rode out behind them, and they shook themselves into a formation two ranks deep.

‘Back!’ Ferox called, and the lad and the red-headed woman came back to form a line facing the enemy. Someone pushed Brigita aside to stand next to him and he was surprised to see that it was the mother. Her face showed no emotion.

Cniva blew his whistle, a shrill note, and then drew his own sword. He did not join his men as they began to walk up the slope, going slowly to keep in line. All of the second rank and most of the first had spears, ready to thrust overarm.

‘Cniva, you bastard!’ Ferox yelled, taking a pace forward. ‘Do you dare to fight me as a man?’

The leader of the Harii said nothing. His men took another pace forward and the distance now was no more than a dozen steps.

‘Kill them all!’ Ferox yelled. This was not the fight that he had wanted, but it was too late for that. ‘Come on!’ He turned the last word into a scream of rage and ran at the black shields of the enemy. There was a strange ululating screech in his ear and he realised that the mother was making it as she came with him, and then the other women took up the unearthly cry. The boys shouted, one of their voices beginning as a deep bellow and cracking into a squeak and that might have been funny if their deaths were not in front of them.

Ferox could see the faces of the men over their shields, and most were fair haired, but their skin was lined and he guessed that these men were Harii and Usipi from the days of the mutiny. There were none of the young boys who had grown up or been captured and raised by these pirates.

The former auxiliaries and mutineers did not flinch. One of his young lads threw himself at the enemy and was impaled through the head on a spear, but the others sensed their determination and stopped a little short. A spear point jabbed at Ferox and he caught it on his little shield, then gave way as the man punched at him with his own, bigger shield. Beside him, the mother had found a shield from somewhere, presumably from one of the boys who had fallen, and she twisted it, so that the edge half spun as she flicked it over the top of her adversary’s shield and smashed his nose. The pirate reeled and her sword darted upwards, taking him in the chin just where his cheek pieces tied together. The man’s eyes rolled up, so that only the whites were visible, and when she drew the blade out with a sucking sound he slumped forward. The woman jumped back, then came forward again before the warrior in the second rank could take the dead man’s place. She ducked, going under his spear, and he panicked, dropping it and reaching for his sword, a movement that opened him to a thrust into his side. The mail was strong enough to stop it being fatal, but he yelped and let go of his shield. The next attack was a thrust to the face and the man stepped back to avoid it.

Ferox’s opponent’s eyes flicked to the side when the man next to him died. The Roman jabbed at the pirate’s face, stopping the blow as the black shield came up to block it, and instead whipped the beautifully balanced sword down to strike the man’s thigh. It was a light blow, but the spear thrust that came back at him was weak and ill aimed. Ferox had his sword up again, point ready to lance forward.

The mother spun around as she slashed the man in the leg and he fell. She was through the formation, heading for Cniva, and some of the men in the second rank were turning around to reach her, breaking the line apart. There was an appalling scream as a spear drove deep into the redhead’s upper thigh. As the pirate wrenched it free a fountain of blood pumped all over him from the ruptured artery and drenched his legs and shield. He stepped over her, coming up on the unprotected side of the blonde, who went backwards, feinting against each of her opponents in turn. The neat lines had gone, but numbers were starting to tell. One of the boys, bleeding from a graze on his leg, desperately blocked cuts from a sword, and each time less of his shield was left. He slashed back at the pirate, but the man was bigger and had a longer reach.

Ferox looped his own shield over the top of his opponent’s bigger, oval shield, yanking it down so that he could stab the man in the face. An instant before the point speared through the man’s eye, the pirate’s spearhead struck him on the right side and drove through one of the plates. The pirate fell, and Ferox was gasping for breath, feeling the pain but not yet weakened.

A pirate came from behind the mother, and she somehow sensed and spun almost like a dancer, going towards him and slashing her blade across his throat. Cniva drove his horse at her, and the animal’s shoulder knocked the woman over. She rolled away and was up in a moment, but a spear took her in the side. Cniva slashed down, cutting into her shoulder so that she dropped her shield.

Brigita saw her plight and screamed as she hacked lumps out of her opponent’s shield, her sheer fury forcing him back. The rest of her warriors were too hard pressed to see what was happening, but the queen shattered the man’s shield and then sliced into his arm. The pirate’s sword grazed her leg, but she ignored it, stamping forward, right arm out and most of her body unprotected by her shield as she drove the blade through the man’s armour and into his heart.

Ferox was sure that the mother looked at him for an instant, then she dived under Cniva’s horse, stabbing its belly with her sword. The animal screamed, rearing, and its hind feet trampled on her before it threw its rider and fell. A pirate had his spear in both hands as he ran it into the woman’s body. Cniva was up, helmet gone but sword still in his hands. His horse sank down on its front knees, steaming entrails spilling onto the grass.

‘Bastard!’ Ferox yelled, his voice croaking because his mouth was so dry, and his side aching. He lifted his shield, saw the pirate meet it by raising his own, and instead twisted his wrist to thrust down, missing the man’s face but digging into his neck. Cniva was not paying any attention to him but was looking over to the right and suddenly there was a shout and men were coming at the pirates from behind. He saw Vindex, and one-eyed Longinus, but out in front was Probus, his face very pale.