Adustum
#7 of Heaven's Son
This story is part of a series entitled "Heaven's Son". I strongly urge any readers to read the series to get an understanding of the plot. All the characters and settings are my creations, please don't copy them or use them without asking me. Feedback is always appreciated and can be given at nightflurry(at)yahoo.com
Chapter VII "Adustum"
"Here I abandon peace and desecrated law.
Fortune, it is you I follow.
Farewell to treaties.
From now on war is our judge."
-Jeff Daniels in "Gods and Generals" paraphrasing Marcus Annaeus' "Pharsalia"
aduro (adustum) : to set fire to, burn, singe, kindle, light.
They say that in the old days of myth that mortals had no courage and cowered before the gods and each other. One day though a mortal son of Jarus, father of the gods, named Ilitus crept into the deity's bedchambers and stole the flame of courage from the god. Jarus was angry and went to punish his son, Ilitus, but the boy did not crouch in fear as he and all other mortals had done for all time. Instead, Ilitus stood up to Father Jarus and the god, seeing that courage had been unleashed upon mortals, retracted his paw. Jarus let his son go without a punishment, knowing that the fire of courage would do more harm to the mortal world than any punishment he could deliver. It would bring war to the world. It would also, however, give the world heroes.
I couldn't really believe that Alexi had made -and pulled off- such a bold and daring maneuver. Thankfully it was one of the easiest fights I've been in which was a good thing for Alexi.
When the fighting was over though he didn't join in with the cheering. Nor did he go relieve his stomach like I did after my first taste of battle. Instead, he slowly walked his horse through the carnage; seemingly totally oblivious to the moans and groans of the wounded and dying. Alexi then got off his mount and walked over to a kneeling officer and took him by the paw. It took me a moment to recognize the other raccoon as Julian from that mornings breakfast. Julian made no effort to stay at his brother's corpse and the two silently made their way towards me. They were both in a daze and as they came into plain view the cheering died out. Slowly at first but the wave of silence caught on and the men parted before the two raccoons reverently.
Alexi's eyes were fixed firmly on the command tent back in the camp, and to it he made his way. Upon reaching his destination, Alexi said a few words to Julian; inaudible from my distance. The other raccoon slowly wandered off towards his own tent, and Alexi entered the larger one. I started towards it but the sight of the aides inside sheepishly leaving persuaded me otherwise. He obviously wanted some privacy.
I must confess being a little worried about him. Battle does different things to different persons. Usually a soldier comes to accept it at the moment and then deals with the effects later in life. Sometimes the stress, fears, and brutality break the soldier. There was no way to be sure how one would act after combat. Even the finest trained, most promising, and highly motivated man could lose his sense of being. I was thinking what probably many others of the soldiers were: What result will Alexi come out of that tent with.
There was little point in concerning myself with that now; there were other matters to attend to. First things first. I scanned around and spotted Lucian, and with a wave of my paw brought him to my side. "How many Tourii did we lose today?"
A thick coat of dust and the occasional blood spatter ruined the otter's normally majestic appearance. Lucian though, as usual, showed no signs of being downtrodden. "We lost three of them."
I nodded. No names, as always. It may seem a bit odd to the outsider but Tourii do not record the names of our dead, only the numbers. The theory being that we had already given our lives to the emperor and empire by merely being in the guard. Also it's worth noting that many of the Tourii were taken at an extremely young age and therefore have no real kin to inform.
Lucian wasn't done. In fact, he had a stark look upon his normally either angry or delighted muzzle. I didn't have to ask; he was simply waiting for me to notice the unusual expression before he started. "Only one of the Tourii, but thousands of the regular soldiers are reporting.. odd wounds."
I felt my ears perk up at the statement. "Unusual wounds?"
The otter nodded slowly. "Tails."
He needed say no more. My spine straightened and the fur on my neck felt as though it was standing straight up. Losing a tail in battle was bound to (and did) happen occasionally, but it was not at all as common as one not knowledgeable about war would suspect. It was considered a taboo in combat to cut another's tail; a dishonorable strike. The Melikar were nothing if not honorable, so why...
It didn't take the answer long to come to me: retribution. They were answering General Caius and his mutilation of the three thousand wolves. When I looked back up Lucian was gone; having left as I was lost in my thoughts for a moment.
General Caius was on my mind now, and well he should be. There was hushed talk all around me about the general. Was he dead, was he wounded somewhere on the field, did he flee? Nobody was really sure, though I secretly expected the latter to be the case. Caius was a loud-mouthed, posturing, self-righteous coward and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he just took off when the fighting got tough.
The sound of hoof beats coming from the battlefield caught my ear. I turned my head and spotted a lone wolf rider coming to a stop at our lines. Immediately I hurried over as fast as possible and waved off the soldiers near him. I was technically the second highest ranked imperial in the army after Alexi. Second in command of the Tourii is above nearly any general. It was rank I rarely pulled but this was a good time to do just that.
The wolf looked down and addressed me with a surprisingly good command of Dorian. "My prince wishes to propose a short truce so that both sides may properly collect their dead." He said nothing else; just stared at me expectantly.
It was a fair proposal of course, and I looked up at the sun to see what time of day it was: just after midday. "Of course. Inform your prince that there will be a truce until dusk."
The Melikar rider said nothing more and simply turned his steed and raced back to the woods. Well that was that. I turned to an officer near me. "See that gets relayed. Truce until dusk."
I was going to go supervise the morbid task of recovering the bodies from the field, but the sound of a large tent flap being thrown opened forced my neck to spin back round.
Whatever chatter that was present in the camp instantly died out as Alexi stood in the entrance to the command tent. I rapidly made my way over there; pushing and shoving at times. As soon as I got there Alexi smiled and walked right up to me.
It was a bit unnerving really, I must say. He wasn't in there long, and he showed no signs at all of any type of stress. Either he was suppressing them extremely well or he was doing something else that I just wasn't aware of. In any case I informed him of the truce and he nodded agreeably before calmly speaking to a nearby rider. "You, get General Attalus up here immediately. No. Tell Attalus to meet me by the artillery."
With only an affirmative salute the rider was off to locate the skunk general. I jumped a bit as I was grabbed by the wrist and tugged along with the raccoon. I decided to speak.
"If we're going to speak to General Argallus, the artillery commander, then I should probably warn you that I know of him."
The coon nodded and continued towards the rear at a brisk pace, though no longer dragging me along physically. "Well that's good then, what of it?"
"Well he's a bit... unbalanced, but the best commander of siege engines in the Empire."
Alexi stopped and stared at me a few moments. "Just how crazy is this person?"
I gave him a wry grin, glad at the opportunity to show some levity. "Oh you'll see."
The grin was not returned except by an annoyed huff. He obviously was in no mood for jokes and we passed the rest of the short walk in eager silence.
As we came into the area with the various siege engines I tapped Alexi on the shoulder and pointed out to him the general.
General Argallus was a fellow fox in his 40's. He was tall and skinny enough so that he always looked as if he was about to fall over into a silly mess of bones. That wasn't what Alexi noticed about the vulpine though. Like everyone else he was struck immediately by one thing: the general's choice of dress. Argallus had become infamous for parading about in his wide brimmed straw farmers hat and a blue toga.
The raccoon regarded the curious looking fox with an equally curious stare, then simply shrugged and asked me what my opinion of the situation was.
I had to think about it for a moment or two because I honestly was not all that sure. I told Alexi I would not have counterattacked as he did since I didn't feel that our reserves were strong enough, and if I had have ordered that I would have gone all in and pursued the Melikar into the woods since their own reserves were likely even less strong. He nodded in agreement and said that he sees now that he was too cautious and that the battle today was not a completed one but one to be concluded.
He was right of course, but nobody wanted to hear of that. The only real question was how Alexi would conclude it. I was going to ask him directly but was interrupted by the arrival of General Attalus.
The skunk dismounted and joined our circle. Alexi immediately thanked him for carrying out the attack orders so quickly and properly. Then the raccoon turned to most pressing issue at hand.
"Attalus, how far can we spread the army around those woods while keeping the line strong enough to prevent them from driving us off; about three quarters perhaps?"
The skunk grunted and scratched his chin in thought and seemed to be mouthing some math to himself. "Not quite I don't think. It doesn't seem we lost all that many men but he have a lot of wounded. I think we could get about two thirds though."
The Enforcer put his paws on his hips and chewed on his lower lip a bit; something he did when in thought. He then nodded firmly and addressed the group. "That will be sufficient. As soon as dusk comes I want you to organize the army to do just that."
He then motioned towards Argallus. "You, general, will bring your siege engines up behind the infantry as if to lay siege."
Next it was my turn, but the question was a little out of the blue it seemed. "Naorume, do you remember from the briefings how long it's been since it rained here? It's awfully dusty."
It caught me off guard and I took a few moments to mentally dig up the answer. "Umm not entirely sure but at least a month, probably more." As soon as the words exited my muzzle I felt my eyes shoot open in realization. Oh no he wasn't even going--
"And General Argallus, you have enough incendiary stored for your engines, correct?"
The lanky general nodded rapidly but still remained quiet; he had said nothing all night.
I saw Attalus had the same expression of disbelief as me, and I could tell he saw mine too. Good, we could team up maybe. I decided to make the move. "Alexi, you can't do this. It's totally improper and we can win by other means. You yourself have told me you don't want to have to kill the wolves for the mistakes of Caius."
The raccoon shot me a very fed up looking glare and matched with a short growl. "It doesn't matter what I want to have happen; what we need is a total, complete, devastating victory. We keep fighting these people over and over because we've never really beaten them; only gained minor victories and temporary treaties. No more, not on my watch. We finish this quarrel with the wolves."
The hat-wearing fox finally said something; an intelligent something at that. "But that would mean that after winning here we'd drive on and conquer their kingdom by force. This isn't their only army you know."
Another glare from Alexi silenced another opposition voice. "I know that, but how long after our 'peace' before we just end up warring with these wolves again? It -must- end, and it must end now."
I growled loudly in disgust. I hadn't ever really shown any anger towards Alexi in the time we'd been together, it was totally bad form for me to. I'd be damned though if I just let him go through with this crazy idea though. "Damnit Alexi! You're the Imperial Enforcer. Your job is to uphold the law and will of the Emperor, not conquer the Melikar Kingdom!"
He growled back and glared right at me.
It was in his eyes. The sort of fanatical determination that I've seen once or twice in my life from leaders; the great kind. I knew it then absolutely, in that very instant why the emperor chose the unlikely Alexi to be his Enforcer. Emperor Darsus saw that spark before it was even visible to someone like me. I knew then that Alexi was bound to be one of the great leaders in history; he was just waiting to be awakened. If he said this was the way to do it, then it was the way to do it. The soldiers that serve under great leaders rarely like them at the time, but the leaders seem to know what they're doing... there was no arguing anymore.
I wasn't sure if Attalus and Argallus saw it too, but in any case they made no effort to further object. Alexi ordered them to get to work on preparations and they did so immediately; without question. I followed him back to the front of the line, but he said or did nothing; merely folded his arms in front of him and stared at the forest.
The field was abustle with activity as both sides were recovering their dead and dying. Dorian and Melikar intermingled silently; the silence only broken by the incoherent sounds of the wounded. Alexi unfolded his arms and began walking towards the field; signaling with his paw for me to remain where I was.
I wasn't sure what he was doing at first, and when I realized what that was it surprised me. The Enforcer was walking among the wounded; grasping a paw here and patting a head there. He was giving a few words to each soldier he went to. I wasn't sure what to think really. Just a few minutes ago he'd callously ordered what was sure to be a massacre for this evening, and yet here he was suddenly showing more compassion than any other general I've seen. Generals usually did not bother themselves with seeing the results of their battles; few could handle it. I continued to watch him with a sort of childlike curiosity. Once or twice upon coming to a particularly bad case he'd stiffen and make as if to turn his head away in shame, but he didn't.
I looked to my left and right to find I was not the only one observing the display. Then he did it; a simple act that would live forever in both the memory of all who witnessed it and in history. The raccoon buckled under the weight of his conscious with perhaps the help of the weighty armour and he cried. It wasn't immediately clear, but the small little convulsions and the paws coming up to his face made it so.
Nobody said anything, we just stood and watched. A few other soldiers broke down as well I think. It was truly a strange phenomenon, but no one ever questioned it. It was something that many a soldier has wanted to do, but few have the courage to do it in front of so many other strangers. I never could understand Alexi really. One moment he'd be totally in control; coming off as cool and distant. Another moment he'd let his emotions show clear through. He had always kept control however, and even as he sat hunched over on the bloody field I knew he still was.
The raccoon didn't take long before he was back up on his feet, walking willfully back towards me. When we met, he wrapped me up in a tight embrace and smiled sadly. "I'm very sorry if I was curt with you earlier." He gave me a short nuzzle and I got another glace at his eyes. They were still as afire as before; amazing. "I should have at listened to what you all had to say, but my mind is made up. We will attack at dusk." He sighed and patted my shoulder. "I'll be in the command tent until then."
Once again I wasn't sure how precisely take the raccoon, but I nodded and watched him walk back once again to the large tent. I decided to make myself busy for the next few hours. Mostly just lending a paw here and there with preparations and with a few wounded. The time passes quick when you're absent-mindedly busy, and before I knew it the sky was becoming a dark shade of blue.
The army was already preparing to move up into its semi-encircling posture. There was a lot of groaning amongst the soldiers about having to take up battle positions twice in the same day; but the officers kept them in line and focused on their task.
One other thing happened though that was very substantial. Alexi ordered all 11 of Caius' generals into the tent. Now, normally an Imperial army only has 3-4 generals in it. One in overall command and one for each wing plus sometimes a cavalry or artillery commander. Caius was being his typical self and promoting all his cronies to high ranks; Alexi ended it. They all filed back out of the tent stripped of their black tassels and cloaks.
It's very easy to tell ranks in the army since there are only a few. A lieutenant will have a red plume, a captain a red plume and cloak, a general black, royalty and Enforcers purple. Tourii had white plumes and cloaks with black armour. The men that came out of that tent had worn no rank at all; he busted them all the way down to the common warriors. All but two of course: Attalus and Argallus. Those two generals held the rank before Caius and thus kept it.
A few moments later he himself emerged, still dressed in armour but not the kind he'd been wearing. He'd shed the mail layer and just wore the breastplate and leather over the linen. I couldn't really blame him; most generals who tried wearing both such overlapping armour threw one of the pieces away in short order. It was more surprising that he'd worn it at all.
He came right over to me and the other Tourii and simply smiled and patted me on the back. "May Lorus watch over this army tonight." Alexi was not the most devout of Dorians, but even he apparently consulted the god of war. The other primary gods were Jarus, father of the gods and us mortals. Marus, god of the sun and moon. and Vintus, god of love and wine.
No time was wasted and the raccoon immediately mounted Matthias; giving the white and gray horse and few long pets before trotting off to the center of the reformed line. We followed of course, but the eyes of the army followed him as well. He may have saved the army from defeat by quick thinking earlier, but some of the soldiers were still suspicious about the young commander. As we came near the center I noticed that the siege engines were gathered there, and that both the skunk and the unusual fox general were there as well. Just before I reached the group Attalus took off towards his command.
Alexi whipped Matthias around and yelled to the artillery. "Commence bombardment!"
Instantly dozens of small torches moved to the large balls of incendiary on the launchers; igniting them violently. My horse hesitated momentarily at the sudden bursts of flame up ahead, but got back along his way with a little encouragement. I was upon Alexi in a moment, just as the catapults let loose with their whoosh and crack of equipment. All heads turned upward involuntarily (mine included) to watch the brilliant fireballs streak across the dusk sky and hit their targets; creating an even more massive fireball where they impacted.
"I'm having them target the rear of the wolves first since we couldn't extend our line around that far. It'll take out their escape route." Alexi's voice startled me a bit but I nodded in response to his statement. An unforgiving and harsh tactic, to be sure, but an effective one.
Another volley passed over our heads a few minutes later. This time the desired effect occurred. After landing explosively on the ground the surrounding brush and leaves caught up, and very rapidly I might add.
The shouting from the woods started about then. I'm not sure what the wolves were yelling but I don't believe it takes much of a genius to at least guess. The volleys kept on going in; making their way from the edges of the wood to the center little by little.
It was a slow process, but the time passed very quickly as we all sat transfixed by the hellish display of power. Every so often a few wolves would make a dash out only to be either driven back in or killed by imperial archers. The yelling from within the woods was muted now by the volume of the raging fire. The monstrous flames in some places extended far above the trees as entire patches of the forest caught up like kindling; the heat noticeable even to us standing a good distance away. Good gods how long could they survive such an inferno?
Not long as was soon apparent by the sight of about half a dozen moving fireballs running out of the wood line and letting loose a shrill and haunting scream.
Alexi sat firm in his saddle; the fire of the flames reflecting in his eyes was matched in intensity only by his own internal fire. He spoke, snapping me out of my hypnotic trance. "They'll be making their breakout soon.. I've told the commanders to spare any Melikar that surrender."
Before I could even acknowledge him the woods erupted in life; spitting forth thousands of wolves seeming at once. Most seemed to go for the gap in the rear but a large number were charging straight at us; silhouetted by the flames behind them.
Just as fast as the Melikar had burst forth, Alexi was in action. He spun around in his mount a few times and rapidly surveyed the situation. With his sword drawn and pointed at some of our infantry he yelled out his simple orders. "Third and sixth cohorts attack into those wolves! Fourth and fifth form up and hold your ground! Skirmishers to the rear!"
Very simple strategy, just use a few units to block the enemy attack and use two on the sides of their spearhead to flank the Melikar. It was a bit too simple for a major battle but this was a small scale and disorganized attack made by a fraction of the enemy army.
I half expected to see the raccoon Enforcer charge headlong right into the wolves again, but he didn't. The infantry quickly rushed to comply and made a strong wall of shields and sword points which the wolves were charging straight at with wild abandon.
The impact came soon as the Melikar smashed into the line of our soldiers with the effect of throwing a ripe tomato against a brick wall. Their frenzy and vicious attacks were simply no match for the disciplined defensive line of an imperial army. The skirmishers did their work now; hurling javelins over the heads of our infantry and into the mass of wolves who were pressing themselves in a confused mass against our line.
I sighed and looked down; it was almost too pathetic to watch really. The Melikar were incredible fighters who could (and sometimes did) defeat the Empire in battle, but this nonsensical disorganized attack was nothing but a complete waste of life. It was little more than butchery. It wasn't over though as the Enforcer next to me was soon to remind. "Third and sixth, attack those flanks now!"
With almost beautiful and artful execution, the solid wall of our line exploded violently on the flanks as the soldiers there broke the defensive posture and went immediately to the attack; ruthlessly pressing the sides.
It was a bit hard to tell what was happening in the darkness with only the fire-lite silhouettes visible, but the course of the fight could be made out. It did not last long as the wolves were simply exhausted in body and mind and unable to resist against the flanking maneuver.
A few minutes later they began throwing down their weapons en masse; a deep dishonor to the Melikar but sometimes a hard necessity for survival.
And then it was over. The sad attempt of the wolves to break our line in the center failed as miserably as possible, and by the time we rounded up the prisoners taken we counted over five thousand in our custody.
We later learned that over thirty thousand made it out through the gap in the rear and another two thousand were burned alive in the forest. The prisoners revealed that during both the fights the Melikar army dropped lost eight thousand in battle plus the prisoners and burned. Heavy losses for any army, but just numbers. Our losses on the first day were two thousand five hundred and another three hundred during the night battle.
The real loss in war is not in the numbers of dead but in the numbers of the wounded living. Wounded in the mind and in the spirit the combatants are never the same. History and society care only for the numbers though, and that is why I present them to you.
Alexi too was now among those numbers, and although he showed few signs now, the day would surely come where the full weight of his actions would come back to torment him.
That battle was a major turning point for the young raccoon. Before that day he was an insecure and possibly inept boy forced into a leaders position. After that day he was seen as a confident and iron willed leader forced into the body of a boy. The lighting on fire of both the forest and his spirit marked the change in Alexi. The Empire, and indeed the world, would never be the same.