Bronze Summer

52

The Second Year After the Fire Mountain: Late Autumn

Mi came running into the hearthspace of My Sun, her big Kirike’s Land bow slung over her shoulder. She was breathing hard, sweating despite the chill of the day. ‘They are coming,’ she said. ‘The Trojans! They are coming!’

Hadhe and Vala were sitting with the other women at the open-air fire in the hearthspace. They were working on the fruits of the autumn forests: acorns from the oaks being readied for the winter storage pit, and leaves, bark, flowers from the horse chestnuts, all of which could be used in cooking and in medicine.

For a heartbeat nobody moved. Somehow Hadhe couldn’t hear what Mi was saying, couldn’t take it in. Here was her village, her home, the neat houses around the central hearthplace, the big communal house standing proud on its flood mound, the hopeful symbols carved by Caxa into the high hillside that had become so popular that everybody called this place ‘My Sun’ now, rather than its old name of Sunflower. Even the bare earth of the new defensive rampart they had had to build did not spoil the beauty of the prospect. She took a deep breath, of air that was tinged with the smoke of the quietly crackling fire, and with a deeper, burning scent of the turning leaves. And the child inside her, five months into its term, turned in its contented sleep.

She looked at Mi, this urgent fourteen-year-old with her bad news. It had been five months since the Trojans had landed, three since Noli’s showdown with Qirum. The summer was long gone, the season when the soldiers liked to fight. They were safe, for this year at least. Weren’t they?

‘I saw purple hairstreaks today,’ she said.

‘What?’ Mi snapped. ‘What?’

‘Near the oaks, when we were gathering the acorns. What pretty butterflies they are. The sun was shining right through their wings. It’s been a funny year for butterflies and moths, but-’

‘Butterflies? Didn’t you hear what I said?’

Vala got up and put an arm around her daughter’s shoulder. ‘Mi? Are you sure?’

Mi pointed to the south, in the direction of New Troy. ‘I saw their fires, mother. Smoke. I crept closer.’

‘That was foolish-’

‘I took care!’ Mi snapped, defiant. ‘They would not see me! But I saw them. Men. Horses. Chariots. Weapons everywhere.’

‘They were hunting,’ Hadhe said. ‘That is what they do. They eat the bread from their farms, but they hunt for sport.’

‘These were too many for hunting. There were a hundred men — maybe more. I counted! And they had breastplates, plumes in their helmets, shields. I have seen this before. I have watched them train. It is a phalanx.’ Another Greek word that had entered the Northlanders’ vocabulary since the coming of King Qirum. ‘They are marching. They will be here tomorrow at the latest.’

Hadhe might be hesitating, but the alarm was spreading. The circle at the fire was breaking up, and the men emerged from the houses. One woman was calling for her children. Caxa came out of the shade of a house. Hadhe saw that the slender Jaguar girl had been sketching designs on a clay tablet.

‘What’s going on?’ Hesh came walking over from the house, pulling a rope belt around his tunic. Hadhe’s second husband was a heavy-looking man with an odd little ring of beard around his mouth. His first wife had died in childbirth, and he had no children of his own. He leaned over Hadhe and hugged his wife, his breath rich with stale Trojan beer. ‘You woke me up,’ he said, grinning at Mi. ‘All I could hear was your voice.’ He flapped his fingers like a duck’s beak. ‘Quack, quack.’

Mi was furious. Hadhe recalled she had already fought against the Midsummer Invasion, had already killed Trojans. She had a right to be furious, Hadhe supposed. ‘You’re a fool,’ Mi snapped at Hesh. ‘If my father was here-’

‘But he’s not,’ Vala said sternly. ‘And as Hadhe’s husband he is your uncle, girl. Show some respect.’

‘Respect?’ Mi stamped her foot in frustration. ‘Why won’t any of you listen to me?’

Hadhe, still sitting, said, ‘I believe you saw what you say, Mi. But — well, we must be sure. Maybe it’s just another show of force.’ And there had been plenty of those, including spectacular chariot drives along the wide straight avenues of Northland. All meant to intimidate. ‘And besides, we should be safe.’ The new defensive rampart that circled the community’s central hearthplace was a bank of earth taller than the tallest warrior, and out of sight beyond it was the ditch from which the earth for the bank had been dug, implanted with broken spears, arrowheads and thorns laced with various exotic poisons. All this had been set up at Raka’s order. ‘None of us wanted to build such a thing. You know I argued against it as a waste of effort.’

Vala knelt by Hadhe and took her hand. ‘Listen, Hadhe. I heard the fire mountain’s shout, but did not believe its warnings. Just as we did not believe Qirum would raise an army, but he did. We did not believe he would land in Northland, but he did. Now we don’t want to believe he will start a war. And yet-’

‘And yet his soldiers are coming,’ Mi insisted.

And Hadhe was sitting here as if trying to make it all go away. She pushed herself to her feet, laying her hand on her belly. I’m sorry, she told the child within. Maybe I have been lost in your dreams of the womb. She faced Mi. ‘You say a hundred. How long would it take them to get here?’

‘Less than a day.’

‘We cannot fight a hundred,’ Hesh muttered.

‘But we must,’ Mi insisted, young, earnest, defiant.

He nodded. ‘Yes. I will gather the men and older boys.’ Of whom there were about forty in the settlement. ‘We should check the rampart, man it. Burn the bridges over the ditch. Ready our bows and spears…’ These were all actions they had planned under the tutelage of the Hatti warriors Raka had brought, actions they had never really imagined would need to be taken.

‘Use the women too, and the older girls,’ Vala snapped. ‘I can throw a spear. Remember what that Hatti corporal said. The Trojans will need more attackers than defenders, two to one, three to one. The more of us we can muster the better chance we will have.’

Hadhe glanced around, trying to think, to contribute. What else? ‘What about the children? The infants should be taken to the flood mound, with their mothers. If the Trojans do break through the rampart, at least we can fall back there and make a stand. As for the older children, Mi-’

Mi stood with Hesh. ‘I’ll fight.’

‘Oh, no, you won’t,’ Vala snapped.

Mi flared, ‘Mother, I’m old enough to choose.’

Vala held her shoulders. ‘Oh, child, but you’re not old enough to die!’

Hadhe stepped forward. ‘Mi — listen. We need someone to evacuate the older children. Those old enough to walk, not old enough to fight. Your brother Puli, he’s only four. And my kids, Keli, Blane… There are plenty of others. Round them up and get them out of here before the Trojans come — if they come. Take them to the Wall, where they will be safe. Please, Mi. Find a couple of others to help you.’

‘They won’t leave their mothers.’

Hadhe squeezed her arm. ‘That’s why it must be you. Tell them it’s a treat, a hunt for eels or grass snakes. They’ll believe you. Go.’ She pushed her away, gently. ‘Take blankets, water flasks, fire-making gear, mashed food for the little ones. Oh, and take Caxa. I think the Annids would want her to be kept safe. She can help with the children. And, Mi. This is most important.’

‘Yes?’

‘When you get to the Wall, tell them what’s happening here. Tell them we need help.’

Vala hugged Mi. ‘Maybe you’ll be back here in a few days and the sun will be shining and everybody will be fine, and nothing will have happened.’

‘I’ll have been wrong,’ Mi pointed out. ‘But I could live with that.’

‘Good girl,’ Vala said. ‘Go now. Go!’ She turned away quickly, and Hadhe saw how she was fighting back a sudden tear.

As Mi ran off to find the children, the adults huddled, talking urgently. Through his wooden teeth the priest began muttering prayers to the little mothers, while checking that his bronze knife was in its sheath at his waist.

The Trojans had marched through the night, behind their king.

The hundred or so warriors were mostly Anatolian, equipped in the Hatti fashion, and some even sported thick Hatti queues. But in the months since the landing Protis the Spartan had trained them up as infantry in the disciplined Greek style. So they marched as quietly as a hundred such men could be expected to, though there were always muffled coughs, muttering voices, the creak of leather shields and the clank of bronze weapons and armour. Further back came the chariots, and the neighing of horses carried in the moist night air. The soldiers had grumbled about being woken for the march, but soldiers always grumbled, and the promise of the first real action since the landing was enough to stir most of them. And there would be women, and boys for those who preferred that kind of thing. The women of Northland had proven to be big healthy animals, a much better ride than the dead-eyed forced whores of the booty people brought over from the Continent, or the dusty, worn-out, slack-uddered farmers’ wives you would find on a raid in Anatolia or Greece. They were ready. Qirum was sure of it.

And at last, only a little before the dawn, Qirum stood before a Northland community, a king with his army at his back, and Protis and the Spider at his side, his basileis. They were here in force, for Qirum was determined to make this first serious assault a statement of intent.

Not that the prize they had come so far to take looked like much in the blue-grey dawn light. Just a rough earth rampart and ditch around a huddle of houses, with that one big dwelling up on its mound. But you could only fight what the enemy put in front of you; you could only take what he had to lose.

First they had to cross that ditch. Qirum turned and murmured a command to Erishum. The sergeant gathered half a dozen engineers. They moved forward, dragging logs and sections of a wooden platform.

In response a gate in the rampart opened, and men came filing out. It was too dark to see clearly, but Qirum thought there could be no more than fifty of them. All seemed armed, though, and some were armoured, in leather or bronze. They lined up on the far side of the ditch, and shouted threats and launched the odd arrow at the engineers. But the Trojans were already in the ditch; they raised their shields and kept working. Soon the bridge would be ready.

‘So here we are,’ murmured Protis, standing by Qirum. He had learned to speak a coarsely accented Trojan, as an honour to his new king. But his voice was as expressionless as his eyes, even as they were about to give battle. The man made Qirum shudder. ‘We have no element of surprise. We came walking in by the most obvious route, straight up the road from the south that runs through the heart of this country. We could split our forces and come in from the back, the sides…’

‘Or the chariots,’ murmured the Spider. ‘Get them across that ditch and let them run at the defences.’

Qirum snorted. ‘You Hatti love your chariots. Look at this place. We don’t need chariots, or subtlety of tactics. Do you really think we need more than a frontal assault to finish off this lot?’

Erishum hurried back and reported that the engineers had completed their work.

‘No more talk.’ Qirum pulled his sword from its scabbard with a ringing sound, and he raised his voice so the men could hear. ‘Let’s get this done. Are you ready to live like men, or die like heroes?’ In response Erishum slammed the shaft of his spear against his leather shield, over and over. Soon all the men were banging their shields, stamping their feet, yelling. Qirum raised his sword. ‘Onwards!’ And he marched forward, closely flanked by the Spider and Protis, with the best of their men following. The heroes always led the charge.

Immediately there was a whoosh and clatter, and the blue-grey sky above the settlement darkened. Arrows and stones, hurled from within the settlement. The defenders weren’t entirely unprepared, then. Good — it would make for a better fight, and the men needed it.

Protis roared, ‘Shields!’ He raised his own shield, as did Qirum, as they marched. The order was repeated up and down the line, but Protis’s bellow had been so loud there was scarcely a need; like most successful commanders he had lungs like an iron smelter’s leather bellows.

The arrows and heavy stones clanged against the bronze face of Qirum’s shield, making him stagger. But he kept advancing. And javelins were thrown from the ranks behind him; they fell on Northlander flesh, and there were screams and cries.

Now there was a roar ahead. The Northlanders outside the rampart were coming forward. Evidently they meant to meet the Trojans as they reached the bottleneck of the engineers’ bridge. Better not to have let the bridge be built in the first place, Qirum thought; it showed the typical indecisiveness of the untrained, the inexperienced. No matter.

Suddenly the Northlanders were only paces away. Qirum saw their strange red hair, their faces pale with anger or fear.

The two sides closed in a hail of slingshot and arrows. At first it was just the three of them, Qirum, Protis and the Spider, side by side on the bridge’s rough panels. The first man Qirum faced was tall, young, healthy-looking, with an odd little beard around his mouth. He looked astonished when Qirum thrust the tip of his own sword into his throat, almost delicately, as a surgeon would lance a wound. Here was the benefit of training, which beat the hesitancy out of a man; it was easier to die than to kill for the first time, as the man was no doubt already explaining to the little mothers, his feeble goddesses. Qirum got his boot on the man’s chest and shoved him back, thus retrieving his sword, and he surged forward once more, laying into the next man, and the next. Beside him, Protis swung his sword and the Spider stabbed with his spear, flesh was broken and blood spurted. Protis especially was extraordinary in such a situation, a whirl of slashing blades.

Surrounded by roars, in a mist of blood, the three companions slew and maimed, driving on as the defenders fell back before them. Soon the three of them, just three against fifty or so, had driven a deep hole into the ranks of the defenders. Behind them, Erishum led more men over the bridge to pour into the attack, hacking, screaming, driving the foe back.

A cry went up from the defenders, in their own strange tongue. Fall back! At the rear, men streamed back through the rampart gate. Those at the front had to scramble backwards, fighting as they went. Erishum and the other sergeants yelled encouragement at the Trojan forces, to keep pushing, keep killing.

It didn’t take long for the Trojan surge to reach the gate. There was a final brave stand by a handful of Northlanders, who held the Trojans back long enough for the gate to be slammed shut, before they died in their turn. The commanders would not allow any pause, any falling back, any break in the assault now it had begun. Protis called, ‘Shields up! Bring the ladders! Come on, you lazy slugs, do I have to do it myself?’

Handfuls of men carried the stubby siege ladders forward from the little army’s short train, protected from the arrows by the raised shields of others who ran alongside. Good training paying off again, Qirum thought, watching from under his shield.

The Spider turned his own shield over and pulled out an arrow with some difficulty. It had penetrated bronze plate. ‘Iron,’ he said, turning the arrow’s head before his king’s eyes. ‘Good stuff too.’

‘Well, we knew they had it,’ Qirum said. ‘From what they stole in Hattusa.’

The Spider glanced at the rough rampart. ‘It will make no difference. Iron or not, these savages don’t know how civilised men fight.’

‘Well, they know now.’

Soon the first ladder, rough steps hacked into a halved tree trunk, was up against the wall. This time Protis was the first to charge. ‘Let’s get this over.’ He took the ladder at a run, not using his hands, sword in one hand and shield strap in the other, relying on sheer momentum to keep from falling as he climbed. He slammed the shield into the face of a defender at the top, who fell back screaming, his face a bloody mass. Then Protis was up and over the rampart, sword swinging, and he dropped out of sight on the far side. His men followed in his wake.

All along the wall more ladders had been propped up, more Trojans were pouring over. The defenders were already falling back.

Qirum roared, ‘Let me at them!’ But he had to push his way through the men to get to the ladder, and clamber his way to the top.

Standing near the central hearth — there were still piles of acorns beside a half-filled pit, from the work abandoned yesterday — Vala saw the Trojans break over the rampart, and the men of My Sun falling back, only to be cut down as they fled. One man — she knew him well, a fatherly fellow of about forty called Maos — slithered screaming down a rampart wall that was already slick with bright blood. At the bottom of the wall he rolled over, and from a great gaping slash in his belly snake-like entrails spilled and dragged on the ground.

It seemed only heartbeats since the assault had started. It was not yet fully dawn. But already everything was lost.

‘Mother!’

Vala whirled around. Liff, her twelve-year-old warrior, came staggering towards her, trailing his sword on the ground, his tunic front soaked with blood. Yet his sword seemed unbloodied; he probably hadn’t inflicted a single wound.

The first Trojans had dropped down into the hearthplace and were running forward, yelling, swords in hand. Huge men with weapons running at her, only paces away, and nobody left to stop them.

She shoved Liff so he fell backwards into the acorn pit. He looked up, shocked. She screamed, ‘Cover yourself!’

The blade, coming from over her shoulder, slashed down the right side of her face.

There was an instant of shock; she staggered. Then blood spurted, filling her right eye. On the ground she saw a lank of her hair, bloody flesh that might have been her cheek — her ear, on the ground. And then the pain hit her, as if a fire mountain was bursting inside her head. Bright with agony, she tried to run, staggered.

A heavy mass slammed into her legs, and she was driven face down into the dust. Her cut-open head scraped over the ground, and more pain came, brilliant, blinding. A hand grabbed her shoulder and she was rolled onto her back, in the grip of overwhelming strength. She could see the man over her, though blood was pooling in both her eyes now. She tried to scream, and a fist drove into her mouth, hard and filthy. She felt teeth crack, she tasted blood and dirt, and there was more agony, shocking, sudden. A rough hand dragged up her tunic, and her legs were pulled apart, other hands, other men. And then the man over her thrust and he was inside her, tearing at her dryness. She tried to call for her husband, for Medoc, but he was long dead, and her throat was full of blood.