The Robber Knight's Love

53. The Killing Fields

Crack!

Howls of triumph erupted among the enemy soldiers as the door to the tower gave way. They rushed towards the doorway, and started to pull the splinters and pieces of wood aside, thirsty for blood.

Ayla didn't watch the enemy soldiers. She watched Reuben, and the thirty or so archers who had risen from behind the crenels to stand on either side of him, bows at the ready. The thirty archers that, together with Linhart's men on the other side of the courtyard, made up all of her loyal liegemen. The enemy soldiers down in the courtyard were so intent on celebrating their triumph, so intent on the door, so intent on the outer wall, that they neglected to watch the inner. That was a mistake.

In her mind, Ayla heard once more Reuben's chilling and fiery words, as he had stood on this very wall only a few hours ago, telling them of bloody secrets.

“The name is... the killing fields,” he said.

A shudder went down Ayla's back at the name. “Killing... fields? Why is it called that?” She could have slapped herself at the question. Obviously not because daisies and roses were planted there.

Reuben waved the torch once. The silent sign for 'nock'. As one, the archers put the arrows to the strings. Inside, Ayla heard his voice again.

“It's called that,” Reuben said, “because when a castle is stormed, that is where the attacking soldiers died. Caught in the middle.”

“I... don't understand.”

Reuben moved his torch again. The sign for 'mark'. The archers took aim. Ayla threw a quick glimpse down into the courtyard. The enemy was still busy removing the splintered bits and pieces of the door, ravenous to get at their prey up on the wall, and get out of the way of the streams of boiling oil. Still, they hadn't noticed anything of what was going on behind them.

“When an army attacks, a castle has multiple layers of defense,” Reuben explained, looking glowingly at the killing fields, as if he could see the action before him, “the second layer, the second wall, is the most dangerous to take. At the first layer, the attacking army has a safe rear, it has room to maneuver, safe routes for fresh soldiers to be brought in and wounded to be brought away. It can use heavy war machinery, such as catapults, siege towers, ballisti and the devil knows what else.”

“God. God knows what else.”

Reuben gave a grunt. “All right, I suppose he knows too. The point is that, at the outer wall, the attacking army has many advantages that make up for its inferior positioning. At the inner wall, on the other hand...”

Reuben waved the torch a third time. The men knew what that meant and drew their arrows back. Ayla, just as everybody else on the wall, held her breath. Now was the time to put Reuben's plan to the test.

In her memory, she saw Reuben smile, and it was a gruesome smile.

“...at the inner wall, the situation is quite different.”

Reuben looked at Ayla. Even though he wore his visor, she knew their eyes met for a moment. She nodded. Like the sword of justice, his burning torch came down.

“Loose!”

Ayla had seen arrows fly before: on the meadow beyond the bridge, and at the riverbanks of the Lunt River. In the latter case she had even commanded the archers. Yet never before had she seen arrows fly and hit home with such deadly devastation as now, under the flickering lights of the thunderstorm. Every arrow of the fifty found its mark. With unearthly howls of pain, one sixth of the enemy army went down in one go. As they turned, the second volley was already flying, and another forty soldiers went down with arrows in their legs, chests and stomachs.