The Autumn Republic

Her breath was suddenly squeezed from her, as if she’d been stuck through the stomach and lungs with a lance. A gasp tore itself from her lips and she fought against the dizziness that followed, and when she thought the pain had become unbearable, fire suddenly showered the world.

It spread out from her in a cone like a wave of pestilence, leaving nothing but cinders in its wake. She watched it spread toward the enemy lines and suddenly, without warning, blackness claimed her.

Adamat dashed forward just in time to catch Nila as she fell.

He watched, stunned, as the wall of flame rolled toward, and then over, the Kez brigade. The screams reached him a moment later, but by the time the flame had washed over the advance elements of the Kez infantry, they had already been silenced. Charred skeletons decorated the landscape, twisted horribly from the heat. When the flames finally died, over three-quarters of the brigade had been reduced to ash.

Adamat pulled his gaze away from the spectacle and lifted Nila in both arms. She was a small woman, and were he ten years younger, it would have been easy enough to hurry back to the Wings’ lines. As it was, he struggled to trudge back with his burden, feeling every old ache and wound as he did.

Several infantry dashed out to help him get over the earthen barricades. One of them took Nila from him.

“Get her as far away from the fighting as you can,” Adamat said, following the soldier back into the camp. They hurried through the tents until they reached the eastern edge of the camp, closest to the Adran lines, and the soldier lay Nila on the ground and sprinted back for the front.

Adamat held a hand over the girl’s mouth, and then put a finger to her neck. It took him a few moments, but he was able to find a pulse-albeit a weak one.

He ransacked a nearby soldier’s tent for a sleeping pad and blankets and made the girl comfortable. He didn’t want to smother her, but it might be a good idea to conceal her, just in case the Kez broke through the enemy lines. Once he’d finished with that, he stole an officer’s chair and climbed on top of it to try to get a view of the battle.

A perpetual cloud of powder smoke made it impossible to see anything in the field to the south. The Adran artillery thumped away without rest, and their irregulars were moving into position. It couldn’t be going all that well if they needed their irregulars already. It looked as though several companies of Adran infantry had broken away from the front closest to the Wings and were marching double-time to reinforce the Wings’ camp.

Adamat was considering Nila’s unconscious body, wondering whether he’d have the strength to carry her all the way to the Adran lines and-hopefully-safety, when he turned to the west where Nila had scorched the earth with her sorcery.

The remnants of the brigade she had burned had turned tail and fled without hesitation. From where he was, he could still see them running, and it looked like their own officers were shooting them to try to turn them back.

Good for morale, Adamat imagined.

The Second Brigade was certainly wavering. Their advance had slowed to a crawl and they seemed hesitant to move across the roasted remains of their comrades.

Immense figures-twisted hulks of muscle swathed in black-burst from the Kez lines and raced across the charred plains toward the Wings’ infantry. They brandished pistols and forearm-sized knives and they beckoned to the auxiliaries behind them to follow. Wardens, at least twenty of them. They’d tear apart the green Wings infantry all by themselves.

The entire brigade of Kez auxiliaries broke into a charge, trampling blackened skeletons to dust beneath their feet as they leveled their bayonets.

Adamat felt a pang of pity for those poor bastards who would be caught in that stampede.

The first line of Wings infantry opened fire, dropping several of the Wardens and wounding a dozen more. The creatures kept their advance even through the second volley, and then they were over the earthen fortifications and among the Wings troops. They were followed less than a dozen heartbeats later by over four thousand auxiliaries. The wave of tan uniforms scaled the earthworks and slammed into the barricade of red and white.

The entire scene devolved into chaos.

The Wings’ soldiers had managed to hold against the initial charge, but already their officers were falling to the Wardens. Cracks formed in their defenses and they would be overwhelmed within minutes.

The Adran reinforcements were coming on quick from the south, but there clearly weren’t enough of them, and they wouldn’t be here in time to make a difference.

He found a nearby wagon whose driver had fled, and wrapped Nila firmly in several blankets and shoved her beneath the wagon bed, then stacked two empty rifle crates beside it to conceal her presence. He hoped nobody lit the wagon on fire. It wasn’t much, but the best he could do on these godforsaken plains.