Hearts in Zenith (Four Husbands and a Lover)

36. One Blast of a War Horn

Haida moved in a wave of horseflesh and yelling. Arrows streaked the sky in both directions. Neither the Tashaya's sun-disk, nor Mansoora's wind was favoring either Snehora or me in that respect. No matter. It was Mythra's favor I needed, Indara's cryptic smile and Bhutas' own luck.

The Haida reached the Tverizh lines, turned round and let off another volley off the saddles. They did it two more times. Tverizh infantry held, seasoned by the years of fighting Haida and the steppe's raiders that came before them. The momentum of my attack slowed, despite the fierce fighting on the left flank.

I watched Snehora from my position on a small bluff, sending her mental commands.

Seize the advantage, order the wings in. Do it now, woman! I'm getting restless.

She ignored my fidgeting for another hour, letting the slippery ice exhaust my women and horses. Curse her!

Then, just as I thought her unexpected timidity would doom me, the wings moved in. Ah, the magical moment!

I tossed my hand up into the air, more of a fist pump than a command.

Phedoxia touched a torch to a strange contraption, a tube pointing toward the sky. The acrid smell of smoke, the stickiest foreboding of victory in my life, brought tears to my eyes, but her invention spat out a cloud of smoke and a burning blob. It burst above our heads into a small sun, raining sparks.

From within the knot of Snehora's dogged infantry, came a long blast of a war horn. Ondrey!

"Mythra!" I yelled to my infantry. Only those closest to me could hear it, but they picked up the battle cry. It rippled down the formation, swelling up.

To the last woman, my forces advanced onto the ice. A chill ran through me, making my hands quiver as they gripped the reins. From here on, we'd win or die trying. Me included.

I rode hard. It was some decades since a Commander led an attack herself. I wanted them to see me on the ice, on Breva, fighting like a legend of old. Like a Bhuta, if that was what it took.

Ondrey would survive and he would be mine, no matter what the stubborn man himself believed. I couldn't see him, but the war horn's note reverberated overhead. Later, the Scribes said it was a haunting sound. To me, it was the same as the exhilarating song of any other war horn, but I was riding hard, not penning down a treatise.

Throughout Tverizh formation, gaps opened up. There were knots of yelling and desperate fighting. I crashed into one of those, reigning down blows, slashing madly and trusting Breva to keep us out of icy water, because under my feet...

More importantly, under my enemies' feet, the ice cracked.

Woken by the sound of Yadwiga's war horn, released from their icy grave of horror, the bones of the dead crawled out for vengeance. Some still have garments clinging to the broken ribs or femures. Boots dangled on skeletal ankles. Clumps of hair hang from their staring skulls.

There was nothing but silt inside those skulls, but vengeance wasn't maggots. It didn't need flesh to nest in. It lived in their bones. It drove the dead to claw, dig, clutch and rip into Snehora's women. Their souls rested in the River Vash, but a greater will sent them searching for Snehora herself, their torturer.

Alas, the ice did not break into sheets big enough to turn over and spill our opponents into the frigid water. It cracked, opening holes for the skeletons to squeeze through. The dead were not so many that they would make up for my lack of numbers. Most of them were children and husbands in life, not fighters.

But I would take it! Confusion and terror had to be enough to steal the advantage.

Haida kept their distance, firing as many arrows as they could—lots and lots of arrows. My infantry marched on, hemming the rattled Tverizh in. Out of the forest, poured Snehora's reserve. If she counted on them to save the day, she was about to be sorely disappointed. They weren't attacking. They ran panicking from a hopping cabin on giant chicken legs—that grabbed, tore in twine, and tossed aside a woman just as I spotted it—and more old bones.