Chapter 39: THE SMALL ATTACK

RAIGORO’S POV

The corrupted force attacked three hours before Raigoro expected it.

It was also too small.

He stood on the western command rise as the first warning horn carried across the defensive line.

Below him, Blackharrow infantry moved behind the outer barriers. Archers climbed the prepared stone platforms. Engineers abandoned the last sections of unfinished reinforcement and cleared the fighting lanes.

Dark movement had appeared between the pines below. Thirty, perhaps forty ash hounds came first.

Behind them moved several stonebacks, heavy four-legged creatures with hide thickened by gray corruption. Two carrion drakes circled above the trees without climbing high enough for the Dragon Host to strike cleanly.

Blackharrow’s scout captain, Junar Kess, lowered his viewing glass.

"That is less than half the force we counted yesterday."

"I see it."

"Maybe the others separated."

"Maybe."

Raigoro handed the glass back.

The western defensive sector had been built around three natural positions.

The forward ridge stood closest to the outer ward markers and gave excellent sight across the southern valley.

Behind it, the ground narrowed between two rock slopes before widening again near the principal infantry line.

The third position lay farther back around the ward station, supply route, and medical tents.

Holding the first ridge looked impressive on a map.

Losing the second would be more expensive.

Raigoro had no intention of confusing the two.

Another horn sounded.

The hounds crossed the outer marker.

"Archers wait," Raigoro ordered.

The officer beside him repeated it down the signal line.

The creatures came faster.

Their formation was not neat enough to call military. Hounds broke around trees and rocks. Two stonebacks shoved past one another. A carrion drake struck at something beneath the branches before recovering its flight.

But they continued toward the same section of Blackharrow’s line.

"Now."

The first arrow flight left the ridge.

Several hounds fell.

The rest kept coming.

A second flight followed.

Then the creatures reached the infantry barriers.

The sound changed.

Steel struck bone and scale.

Hounds hit the forward line hard enough to move the first timber frames but not break them. Blackharrow spearmen held behind the barriers while swordsmen worked the openings. Archers shifted targets toward the stonebacks.

One of the larger creatures reached the first defensive frame and drove its weight into the timber.

The structure cracked.

"Second company forward six paces," Raigoro said.

The reserve officer looked at him.

"Only six?"

"Six."

The order traveled.

Blackharrow’s second company moved just far enough to reinforce the opening without crowding the entire front.

The stoneback broke through the timber.

It found twenty waiting spears.

The creature killed one man before the line brought it down.

Another hound reached the gap.

Then another.

The fighting remained violent, but the line held too easily for the numbers Blackharrow’s scouts had counted the day before.

Raigoro kept watching the valley.

Where was the rest?

A Dragon Host officer approached from the upper slope.

"Permission to launch?"

"No."

"The drakes are within range."

"They are also the only things in the air."

The Dragon Host officer followed Raigoro’s attention toward the empty sky beyond them.

If Blackharrow’s dragons launched now, anyone watching from the ridges would know exactly where the aerial reserve had been positioned.

The Dragon Host officer understood.

He went back without argument.

Below, the final stoneback turned away from the line under its own power.

The hounds nearest it began withdrawing almost at the same moment.

The creatures did not flee toward the nearest cover.

They moved back through the same section of forest they had used to approach.

"Hold the line."

Lieutenant Kian Marr, one of Captain Arven’s younger line officers, looked over.

"They’re breaking."

"Yes."

"We can finish them."

"Can we?"

Kian pointed toward the valley.

"They have lost almost half their numbers."

"And we have lost?"

The field clerk answered.

"Two dead confirmed. Seven wounded."

Kian continued, "Then this is the time to pursue."

Raigoro looked through the viewing glass.

The creatures had already passed beyond the first ward marker.

There was no panic or scattering. The carrion drakes turned with them.

Corrupted packs normally broke apart once pressure ended. Faster animals left wounded ones behind, and competing predators separated when the immediate threat disappeared.

This group kept moving in roughly the same direction.

"They spent forty creatures to reach one barrier," Raigoro said.

Kian frowned.

"Which is why we should kill what remains."

"They learned where our archers are."

The officer stopped.

"They learned where the first barriers are reinforced. They saw which company moved when the frame broke."

Raigoro lowered the glass.

"And they left before learning anything more."

The man looked toward the retreating creatures again.

"You think that was the purpose?"

"I think pursuing would answer a question I have not been asked clearly enough yet."

The younger officer did not look satisfied.

That did not matter.

Raigoro turned toward Junar. "Two teams."

"Ground?"

"One ground. One aerial."

"How close?"

"Far enough not to be noticed."

Junar nodded. "No engagement?"

"None unless they cannot return without it."

The scouting parties left within minutes.

Blackharrow remained where it was.

The wounded were carried back.

Engineers replaced the broken barrier.

Archers recovered arrows that could still be used.

The younger officers stopped looking toward Raigoro every time the forest moved.

Mostly.

One hour passed, then another.

The first ground scouts returned with no useful information.

The retreating creatures had continued northwest before disappearing into broken woodland.

The aerial pair had not returned.

Raigoro ate standing beside the map table.

Daric was back at the Citadel. Field reconnaissance reached Raigoro through Junar Kess, while Captain Arven remained responsible for the line infantry.

Arven was old enough not to fill silence merely because it existed.

He moved one wooden marker. "If the force was probing us, they know the ridge is occupied."

"Yes."

"If they wanted us to chase, they know we didn’t."

"Yes."

"What does that change?"

"We find out when they do something with the answer."

Arven nodded.

That was all.

Near sunset, the aerial scouts appeared above the northern ridge. Both dragons descended hard.

Lieutenant Ricar Dain, Captain Veyr’s deputy in the Dragon Host, dismounted from Kethra before the dragon had completely settled.

"Your Grace."

Raigoro stepped toward him.

"What did you find?"

"The retreating pack joined another group west of the first ravine."

"How large?"

"Approximately eighty."

That accounted for the missing creatures.

Ricar continued.

"They didn’t remain there."

Raigoro looked at the map.

"Direction?"

The man pointed southwest, toward a lower approach where the outer ward crossed more open ground.

It was the weaker approach.

"How fast?"

"Moving now."

Captain Arven looked at Raigoro.

"The first attack wasn’t the attack."

Raigoro moved the larger enemy marker across the map.

"No."

Ricar added, "There is more."

Raigoro looked at him.

"We saw another concentration joining from the western trees."

"How many?"

"At least fifty."

The command tent became very quiet.

Raigoro looked at the position they had defended all afternoon, then at the weaker approach several miles away.

The small attack had not tried to break Blackharrow.

It had tried to decide where Blackharrow would look.