Richard Parker - Elsewhere

Tarina Marissa Grace watched as an elderly man picked up a clay pot filled with oil. The pot was about the size of a child’s head and sealed carefully with a plug of beeswax. General Bock had the townspeople fill hundreds of such pots in anticipation of an attack. The Tarina admired such preparations. It would make her job much easier.

Grace was surprised at the relative calm of the city’s defenders, most of who looked to be civilians and many appeared far too old or young to be in the fight. But they watched the vaunted Temple Knights steady approach with surprising composure, as if they didn’t truly believe the enemy wished to breach their walls and kill everyone inside.

The Knights and their siege weapons were still over a hundred yards away when arrows began to streak by overhead. They flew over the walls in flaming waves, attempting to engulf the oncoming siege weapons or any men they hit in fire. Tarina Grace was impressed; the archers were well coordinated and accurate. Unfortunately however, the Knights were very heavily armored and all carried light weight but solid shields. The arrows had little effect, but the Tarina did see a small number of the enemy fall. But as the Knights drew closer the arrows flew at them with considerably less warning and more fell. The airborne missiles became more effective the closer the enemy moved, but still the Tarina doubted they would have a major impact on the battle.

“Prepare the oil!” Tarina Grace yelled and the order was echoed by Captain Huntley and Samantha. The causeways, over twenty of them, were very close and seemed to grow taller as they drew nearer, then suddenly and with little warning they began to drop. They fell haphazardly, not all together, each plummeting to earth as they reached the edge of the protective ditch. Cheers erupted from the Knights as the makeshift bridges slammed into place. They spanned the ditch easily, though Grace noted that one was lowered too early and came up short of the far bank, its end lost in the slowly moving water of the channel. Another, farther to the east, actually banged loudly against the wall and stuck, sloping up at a relatively steep angle.

Once the causeways were in place, the tempo of the Knight’s attack increased dramatically…as did the pulse of the defenders.

When the causeways were down the Knights began to stream across, screaming in defiance. Unperturbed, the defenders on the walls began to fling their clay pots filled with oil almost immediately. The aim and courage of the townspeople surprised Tarina Grace, though their ability to throw the pots was unimpeded by any enemy archers at the moment. Only a few hundred soldiers among the Knights sported bows and their arrows did little to give the Massi defenders pause. They hurled the pots with abandon and only a few missed their targets. Most of the pots hit and shattered, drenching the thick wooden bridges and the men who were crossing them with light, but highly flammable oil, which was quickly ignited by a shower of flaming arrows. The battle field was soon covered with thick, black smoke and the sounds of screaming, burning men.

Tarina Grace’s view of the action was soon impeded by the thick smoke but it was easy enough to tell that the causeways in her vicinity were now impassable. Already in her area many of the enemy soldiers that attempted to carry ladders across the causeways during the initial moments of the attack were either dead or seriously wounded, so she moved quickly along the wall farther to the west toward the main gate. She’d not gone very far before she came upon a mass of men and women in a panic, fleeing in every direction. From what she could gather someone dropped a pot of oil at the base of the wall, and now the entire area was awash with flames. A couple of men had already attempted to quench the flames with water but to their surprise found that this only enlarged the fire.

“Dirt!” The Tarina yelled over the noise of the confusion. “You must use dirt!” She grabbed the nearest man who she seemed to be in charge of the group and repeated the orders to him.

“You must hurry,” Grace said, but the man shook his head.

“We’re lost,” he shouted back. “They’re already over the wall,” he added and pointed farther in the direction the Tarina was headed. The man started toward a ladder and the town below but she grabbed him by the shirt and shook him slightly…he was very large.

“You stay and see to the wall…you stay on the wall. I will deal with anyone who makes it over,” she growled then without looking back to see if her orders were being carried out she ran across the burning section of wall. The heat was intense and she was forced to throw her arms up to protect her face, but once passed she quickly headed toward the west.

Within moments she came across a section of the wall that was indeed under attack. The men and women up top were fighting bravely; though it was clear the Knights outmatched them. Only a handful of Massi fighters were holding their own and most of these sported long pikes with which they skillfully kept the Knights at bay, but one…the woman, Cyndar Huntley was fighting with amazing skill and ferocity, especially since she was still nursing her injuries. As Tarina Grace pushed through a crowd of archers who were leaning over the walls firing steadily on the enemy below, she noticed that Cyndar was indeed fighting with both arms, though the kali in her left was only being used for defense…blocking and deflecting the blows coming her way.

Once passed the archers Grace saw why the ladders were having success in the area, the causeway in this section had not been fired, whether it was covered with oil she did not know.

“Oil!” She shouted to those below. “We need oil now!” She didn’t have the luxury of waiting to see if her order was being acted upon by those below because a pair of pike men nearly backed her off the wall as they retreated from a very aggressive Knight. He was slashing wildly in an attempt to clear a space for more of his fellow soldiers to gain access to the top.

“Move aside and watch my back,” Grace ordered and slipped between the two pike men, one of which was actually a middle aged woman, but despite her age and gender she handled her weapon fairly competently. They both made way. The Knight though clearly experienced and very brave, was not a Tar and it showed. He died within moments of his engagement with the Tarina.

“Get some oil up here,” Grace said shouting back to those below. She ignored the looks of awe in those near her…she was used to worship from commoners when it came to her fighting skills. In her opinion, commoners were easily impressed.

Tarina Grace leaned over the wall and frowned. There were already half a dozen ladders pinned up against the wall, but as she moved forward, a pair of pike men managed to send one ladder sliding down the face of the outer wall. About a dozen or so Knights were already on the top of the wall attempting to clear as much space as possible for the others who were climbing behind them. They were succeeding nicely and only Captain Huntley kept them from pushing farther to the west. Two Knights actually jumped to the ground below and tried to move to the main gate but they were cut off by a host of strong armed pike men.

Tarina Grace however, could not focus for long on the battle below because three Knights moved forward to intercept her. They approached somewhat cautiously having recognized her gray and blue robes, but they attacked as a group, which made them very dangerous, even for a Tar. Thankfully, the rampart was narrow which hindered their group effort, even still Grace had to ward off several close calls before she finally created an opening and stabbed completely through the left arm of one Knight and then sliced into the neck of his companion. The third Knight quickly retreated to where another soldier was climbing over the wall.