The Girl with No Name Ch. 17

The commander of the Red Moon Army decided not to even bother with attempting to negotiate surrender. If those people were stupid enough to stay behind while their leader abandoned them, then they deserved to die. And die they would. As soon as they broke through the walls, the Red Moon Army would kill everyone in the city. Any survivors would be impaled and hung on the walls. They would be the first Danubians to die...the first out of an entire country.

Disguised as a city guard commander, the Grand Duke watched the enemy surround the city. The enemy artillery crews quickly set up their siege cannons. The Danubian ruler ordered the city's cannons to be fired and anyone on the wall with a crossbow to try to hit enemy soldiers. The Duchy's resistance was ineffective, as it was meant to be. As soon as the Red Moon Army had its cannons deployed, they began firing simultaneously to clear the walls. Most of the Danubians on the ramparts sought cover and the city's resistance became even more pathetic.

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Silvítya and Protector Buláshckt stood at the window watching, while the other concubines, military wives, and serving wenches cowered and trembled from the noise. The guard and the concubine observed one of the towers on the wall come crashing down from a cannon blast, then watched as two more cannonballs demolished a portion of the cathedral's roof. Silvítya started to wonder if the Duke's plan really would work. If it didn't, the passageway to the keep would soon be swarming with soldiers of the Kingdom of the Moon. Protector Buláshckt looked through all of the windows and noted that no other guards were in sight. No, this was not good. Yes, he had his musket, but so what? It fired a single shot and took a minute to reload. Against a platoon of enemies it would be about as useful as a club. Muttering under his breath, he cursed the Grand Duke and his fancy new weapons.

The guard grabbed a ceremonial sword off the wall and handed it to Silvítya.

"Go down there and get yourself a guard helmet and some boots. Get me a crossbow or better yet, two if you can find them. A longbow will work, if there's no crossbow. Also, I want as many arrows as you can bring up."

He kicked two of the serving wenches. "Go with her. Take her to wherever your master keeps the archery supplies. She's in charge and you will obey what she tells you."

He turned back to Silvítya. "Remember, if you can't find a crossbow, get me a longbow. And all the arrows you can carry. If you have to steal them, I don't care. And don't forget the helmet and boots for yourself."

Holding her sword, Silvítya unbolted the heavy door to the keep. Three frightened women slipped out. One of the wenches led her companions along a secret passageway that passed the mayor's office and led directly to the armory. A nervous-looking old city guard blocked their entrance. Silvítya was not surprised when he denied the women their request.

"Listen to me and listen carefully, old man! I come on the orders of Protector Buláshckt, who is a representative of the Grand Duke. In other words, I am acting on the Duke's orders. If you choose to send me away empty-handed, Protector Buláshckt will have to come down and deal with you. You don't want Protector Buláshckt coming down here and dealing with you."

The concubine looked totally different now that she was giving orders and had a sword in her hand. The old guard said nothing more, but he opened the door to the armory. Silvítya put on a helmet and grabbed a guard tunic and pair of boots. She grabbed two crossbows that looked to be in good shape and slung them over her shoulder. She grabbed a longbow and loaded her companions down with satchels of crossbow bolts and arrows. She tossed aside the ceremonial sword and got a real one.

Lord-Creator, I hope this is enough...

A few minutes later they returned. Protector Buláshckt nodded with approval as he took the two crossbows and tested them. Meanwhile, Silvítya pulled off her dress and replaced it with a guard's tunic. She put on the boots and the helmet, looking very strange in her new outfit. As the guard studied the course of the battle and prepared his weapons, Silvítya ordered the smartest-looking wench to serve as a lookout for the other side of the room. Then she took up a position next to Protector Buláshckt at the window that overlooked the passageway leading into the tower.

"You remember everything I taught you about the crossbow?"

"Most of it, Protector Buláshckt."

"Good. If that passageway fills up with Red Moons, it will be our part in the war. I'll fire, you'll assist." The guard looked at Silvítya. "I'll be very pleased to have you at my side during this fight."

"Thank you, Protector Buláshckt."

"It's our Path in Life, I believe, to face the enemy together. Anyhow, go calm the others and get some rest. There won't be any rest when the Red Moons show up. I'll call you when it's time."

Protector Buláshckt took off his civilian disguise and put on his colorful Danubian tunic. "I'm not hiding for this. I'm fighting as a Danubian."

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After an hour of being blasted by the Red Moon cannons, the city walls were in bad shape. The enemy commander studied the crumbling defenses, trying to figure out which spot would be the best place for his troops to force their way into the city. Finally, he settled on the city's east gate, which seemed to be a few cannon shots from completely collapsing. It was at that point the Red Moon Army made their first serious mistake. To avoid wasting any more cannonballs, the attacking commanders ordered the cannon crews firing at other parts of the wall to cease and to prepare for the final assault on the city. Meanwhile, all the Red Moon cannons on the east side concentrated on the rapidly crumbling east gate as the ground troops massed and prepared to charge the opening.

The Danubian Grand Duke was elated. Now he knew exactly where the enemy was going to enter. The Danubians desperately rolled cannons into position in the plaza to fire at Red Moon cavalry as they stormed through the wall. Every window overlooking the east gate and the streets leading up to it was occupied by musketeers and archers, and more platoons of musketeers hid along the alleyways.

There was even time to make some final gunpowder traps for the streets. The Danubians hurriedly repositioned some of their pot-bombs and made sure the fuses would work. When the gate and the two towers overlooking it came crashing down, the Danubian Royal Army was ready.

The Army of the Red Moon sent 20,000 screaming soldiers into the city. There were 7,500 Danubian troops opposing them. As soon as they scrambled over the wreckage of the east gate, straight into the Grand Duke's trap.

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Precisely because the Lord of the Red Moon's soldiers were so over-confident, discipline broke down during the mad dash to get past the walls. The invaders had nothing on their minds except slaughtering Danubians. The men in the back of the formation worried that the first platoons would do all the killing and not leave any of the city's inhabitants for the men in the rear. Everyone was desperate to get in, so the hoard charged swiftly and recklessly.

The Duke had ordered a few dozen "civilians" and "women" to be near the gate when it fell. The moment the leading invading platoons saw them, the decoys retreated along the streets to lure the enemy into the city as quickly as possible. The elated invaders fired at the fleeing "civilians", killing most of them. In spite of the loss of those troops, the ruse worked to trick the enemy into charging recklessly towards the cathedral.

For several minutes the only noise that could be heard was the victory screams of the Red Moon Army. Thousands of Red Moon troops crammed the streets as the Danubians stayed hidden and held their fire. The invaders began setting fire to the houses closest to the entry point, adding to the chaos and confusion. The Duke smiled to his commanders. This couldn't possibly be any better.

"Ring the bells! Doc-Doc Danube!"

"DOC-DOC DANUBE! DOC-DOC DANUBE!"

The church bells and the bells on the castle roof rang, signaling two orders at once. It was the call for the Danubian cavalry to leave its hiding place, and it was a call for the troops guarding the streets to fire their muskets and cannons and light the fuses for the street bombs.

As soon as the cathedral bells rang, small strange sparkling fires surrounded the Red Moon army, and then there was a roar unlike anything Silvítya had ever heard before. As the bells continued to clang, dozens of street bombs and cannons mixed with the shooting of thousands of muskets. Silvítya watched smoke and dust billow in the streets and dismembered bodies and body parts fly over the burning rooftops. The first roar of gunpowder died down. The women's hearing recovered from the explosion, but the noise of the blast gave way to the agonized screaming of thousands of wounded men. For the rest of her life, Silvítya would never be able to forget the din of all those dying voices.

"DOC-DOC DANUBE!...DOC-DOC DANUBE!...DOC-DOC DANUBE!..DOC-DOC DANUBE!"

The Danubians fired volley after volley at their helpless enemies, most of whom were trapped in the narrow streets among the bodies of their fallen comrades. Meanwhile, the Danubian cavalry charged the cannon crews still outside the city. Assuming their part in the fight was finished, the invader's cannon crews had stood down as soon as the infantry charged the east gate. They were completely unprepared to defend themselves against a cavalry attack. The Danubian cavalrymen, enraged at the sight of the wrecked city, killed all of them within a few minutes.

Surviving Red Moon infantrymen fanned out from the initial kill-zone and fought the Danubians house-to-house. The Danubians retreated through the holes in the walls, setting fires and laying traps for the invaders. Any soldier from the Red Moon Army that got close to the remains of the outer city wall fell to an arrow fired from one of the many archers stationed along the platform.

"DOC-DOC DANUBE!...DOC-DOC DANUBE!...DOC-DOC DANUBE!..DOC-DOC DANUBE!"

The entire eastern half of Hórkustk Ris was now on fire. The Danubians withdrew across the city's plaza and set up their cannons among the undamaged buildings on the west side, with the intention of creating another kill-zone in the open area in front of the cathedral. At that point the Danubians made their only mistake that day: they did not adequately guard the entrance to the castle. The surviving invaders surged into the plaza, desperately exchanging fire with the Grand Duke's army. The Danubians were firing from sheltered positions while the Red Moon troops were firing from the open, so within a few minutes the plaza was full of dead and dying enemy soldiers. However, about 200 men managed to slip past the cathedral and kill a Danubian squad defending the road leading up the castle. They realized that if they could get to the castle keep, they'd have an excellent spot from which they could defend themselves and command a large portion of the city. Protector Buláshckt watched them storm up the hill unopposed.

"Silvítya! The enemy!"

The Red Moon troops tore loose a beam to use as a battering ram and moved it to the door of the keep. Protector Buláshckt expertly positioned himself and took aim, while Silvítya struggled to arm the second crossbow. As they got ready to bash the door, their commander screamed and fell, grabbing at an crossbow bolt piercing his shoulder. Protector Buláshckt took the loaded weapon from his assistant's hands and handed her the used one. He took aim as Silvítya loaded a second bolt. The men looked around as another bolt pierced a man's neck. Then they saw him...a smartly dressed Danubian soldier shooting at them from a narrow window.

The men fired a volley at the tower as Silvítya's companions screamed in terror. He handed her the used crossbow and took the loaded one. She frantically armed the empty one while he positioned himself and took aim. Another man fell and another volley was fired at the castle keep. Rounds poured through the window, tearing up the expensive tapestries and shattering the vases. An oil lamp fell and fire spread across the floor. Silvítya screamed at the other women:

"Put that out, you dishonored cowards! Grab a tapestry and put it on the fire, now!"

As her companions tried to deal with the fire, Silvítya grabbed the longbow and handed it to Protector Buláshckt, to allow herself time to arm both crossbows. There was another scream, some shouts, and another volley of lead pouring through the windows. The men again tried battering the door, but Protector Buláshckt fired yet more arrows and another invader fell, seriously wounded. The men returned fire, and again Silvítya's companions screamed in terror. In quick succession Protector Buláshckt grabbed and fired both crossbows. Suddenly there was a lot more musket fire and screaming. Silvítya poked her head up to see the men savagely fighting against Danubian soldiers. Protector Buláshckt re-aimed the long bow and fired again at the invaders. Silvítya had both crossbows ready, which allowed the guard to fire two more powerful shots into the compressed and panicked hoard at the door. Protector Buláshckt realized that the tower no longer was in danger, but he was in an excellent spot to assist the Danubian soldiers trying to clear the castle entrance. He screamed:

"Doc-Doc Danube!"

"DOC-DOC DANUBE!"

So...the last of the hunters became the hunted. Protector Buláshckt fired several more times at men who appeared not to be wounded, as the soldiers below finished them with musket shots, and then bayonets.

When the Danubian troops opened the door and let out the Royal Guard and the women, Silvítya had a chance to see her companion's grisly handiwork. Twenty eight of the dead enemy infantrymen had arrows or crossbow bolts sticking out of their corpses. She tried not to look at the faces of the dead men as the Duke's soldiers cheered Protector Buláshckt' bravery and marksmanship.

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The sun was low in the horizon and the battle was mostly over. Half of the city was burning, but the other half, so far, had been spared. The Danubians did not have any time to rest, however. The Grand Duke emphasized that no enemy who had entered the city could be allowed to escape, because the next part of his war plan entailed yet more deception. So, throughout the night the Duke's troops searched through the fallen Army of the Red Moon troops and bayoneted the injured survivors. At sunset the city echoed with the moans of thousands of wounded Red Moon troops: by sunrise the city was totally silent. It was a night of brutality, the result of orders that no prisoners were to be taken.

The men were exhausted, but the following day their frenetic leader kept them busy. They were ordered to collect as many weapons as possible and haul all of the dead enemy soldiers that had not been burnt, nearly 15,000 corpses in all, to the city's main plaza. The sight of so many corpses, most of them horribly mutilated, was a sight that sickened almost everyone present and would haunt dreams for many years to come. The Grand Duke, seemingly unmoved by the sight of so much death, spent the day shouting orders and listening to reports coming in from his scouts.

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It turned out that the siege and massacre was only the first half of what would be a two-part battle. There was another large contingent of Red Moon Army troops that had crossed the border and was only about a day's journey away. There were about 4,000, but they were elite cavalry, the best troops of the House of Moon. Even though the cavalry unit was much smaller than the invasion force the Danubians had just defeated, the Grand Duke did not think his men could win against them in a pitched battle. So...he would attempt to repeat the trap within the walls of Hórkustk Ris, and once again turn the entire city into a kill-zone. To accomplish that, the Danubians would have to lure the cavalry unit, or at least a large part of it, into the ruins of Hórkustk Ris.

The Grand Duke ordered the enemy's flags raised around the city. He ordered his men to strip the dead invaders of any Red Moon uniforms that were salvageable and to put them on. He ordered hundreds of the enemy dead to be dressed in Danubian uniforms and for his men to shave the corpses' heads to make them look more like the Duchy's soldiers. Once the bodies were ready, the Danubian ruler ordered half of the disguised corpses to be taken outside and scattered around the gates, and for the other half to be hauled up the remains of the city walls.

Among the items retrieved from the corpses lying in the burnt section of the city were large hooks. The devices were a trademark of the House of Moon: their commanders usually ordered captured opponents to be impaled on the hooks and left to die an agonizing death. The Grand Duke examined one of the hooks, which, had the Danubians lost the fight, would have been used to hang a Danubian soldier or officer. Instead, they would become an important part of the deception during the next battle. For the rest of the day the Danubians struggled to hoist corpses dressed in Danubian tunics and hang them from the city wall.

By sunset, the ruse was completed. Anyone from the outside would have guessed that Hórkustk Ris had been taken by the Red Moon Army and that the Danubians had suffered a devastating defeat. The walls were lined with hanging corpses dressed in Danubian clothing, the ground outside the city was littered with yet more corpses in Danubian tunics, and everyone still alive was dressed in uniforms of the invaders. Red Moon flags and banners decorated the entrances and walls.

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Silvítya and her companions did not have time to contemplate what was going on in the city plaza and along the walls. Instead, they were forced to assist the Danubian medics, who had set up a field hospital in the ruins of the cathedral. More than a hundred wounded Danubian soldiers lay in that church, resting in beds that had been pilfered from the remaining houses. Although there was not much she could do for head wounds and abdominal injuries, Silvítya was able to assist anyone who had a broken limb. She also knew how to sew up some open wounds. However, Silvítya knew that the majority of the men in the room were going to die. She concentrated on the ones she felt she could save and tried to ignore the desperate pleas of the injured she would not be assisting.

She spent two days working non-stop, shouting at her fellow concubines and military wives to hold down patients while she operated and to keep her supplied with vodka to calm the injured and to sterilize her instruments and open cuts. The other women were in awe of her. She seemed totally in control. The military medics left the concubine and her assistants alone as soon as they realized the woman knew what she was doing.

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Because the eastern side of the city was nothing more than smoldering ruins, the Duke planned to shift the next battle to the city's western district. The trick would be to lure the cavalry unit in and then massacre them. The Duke's men set up the same gunpowder traps that had worked so well two days before, plus a series of traps specifically designed for horses. The cannon arsenal was considerably enhanced when some of the siege cannons were brought into the city and deployed. However, as part of the ruse, the majority of the cannons were left outside the city and set up to appear that they were ready to be moved to the next phase of the Red Moon Army's campaign.

The next part of the Grand Duke's plan involved actually convincing the enemy cavalry unit to come into the city through the west gate and cross into the new kill zone. The Duke would leave the city with a squad of his own cavalrymen and contact the enemy group. The men were dressed in Red Moon uniforms, but they still had to cover their shaved heads. The Duke was ready; among the items he had transported to Hórkustk Ris were several boxes of wigs. With their new long hair, the Danubian horsemen looked totally different. The Duke turned the unit's leadership over to a man who was fluent in the language used by the House of Moon's subjects.