Road to the Crown

Chapter 84: Calm after the breeze, but before the storm

19th march 1574 (barely after midnight)

"Wait!"

Standing on top of the front-most carriage relatively to the direction that the attack came from, I ordered my men to hold their fire. With up to forty people aiming the muskets at the incoming enemies, the effective firing distance was already achieved, yet pure rationality dictated to wait just a little bit more, to make the best use of the salvo, especially with how the events were taking place during the night.

At least, that's what any other general would think when being in my shoes. In reality, I had to wait for as long as possible, to make the enemies finish off the remaining few servants of mine that didn't manage to retreat behind the fortified line, in order to give my reapers gun a nice, tight line of horsemen to shoot at.

"Wait!"

With the enemies rounding up the last people of mine, some officers amongst them pulled most of their troops outside of the musket's effective range and lined them all up in a place far enough to keep them relatively safe, while being close enough to be more than just a threat, especially with how fast they could close the distance on their horses.

"Dear, how is it going?"

While I didn't dare to turn my head away from the threat, the voice that broke my immersion in the battlefield was familiar enough to let me guess who asked this question.

"Not great, not terrible."

Only daring to look at Elia with just the corner of my eyes, I felt the blood in my body rush to both my head and my pridehood. With not enough time to completely dress herself up, she simply bound the blanket from our tent around her entire body and kept it in place both with a simple belt of mine and her hands.

But thinking about it, she wasn't that stupid to come out dressed like that on a damned battlefield, unless she was already willing to play her part of bait if necessary!

"See where did your pride have taken you?"

Finally, a painfully familiar voice came out from behind the enemy lines, accompanied by the small commotion of horsemen pulling to the sides in order to make space for the incoming noble. Seeing how the costly sacrifice of my men managed to reach the situation I aimed for, I had to try my really best to not let the smirk appear on my face, even if the darkness of the night and the distance separating me from Peter was more than enough to hide it from his view.

"Before we will kill you all, tell me, was it worth? Or do you maybe have any lingering thoughts of surrendering? As you can see, I have a clear advantage!"

Finally showing himself in the full glory of his, Peter rode his horse to the very front of the line of his men and stopped right outside of the effective range of the muskets, yet well within the aiming distance for my reaper guns.

"Reapers, be ready for my signal."

Talking with a voice low enough to alert the specific group amongst my men, I stepped forward, revealing my full body standing on top of the carriage, to make this idiot think that he really got me where he wanted.

"And what makes you think that I lost? From what I see, you have light cavalry, about to charge on the line of entrenched carriages. Didn't you study the recounts of the Hussite wars?"

With the Jan Hus being the first general of Europe to implement a line of the carriages into his battle formations, all sorts of cavalry around the world learned what it meant to charge at the wooden, impregnable wall like that. But compared to the tactic invented by that heretic, instead of a full line of carriages, I only have a few of them!

"Don't try to trick me, I have more men than enough to just march over your head. After all, even after you shoot your punny muskets, out of which only about half will manage to fire, what will you be able to do against such an overwhelming advantage of mine? Will your men inside the circle hold on, seeing their comrades slew on the other side of those punny carriages of yours?"

Seeing how my words achieved the required effect, I put my hands behind my back in order to both look like if my confidence was over the roof, or in this case, over the sky above our heads, and to gesture at Elia to make her come up the carriage.

"Why don't you try it yourself then? Seeing how unwilling you are to attack, it makes me think you are just the type of coward who can only attack in surprise, pissing his pants when your enemy is ready to respond in a kind to your unwarranted violence! And trust me, you have drawn the first blood, and if even a single man of mine will survive, the Governor will learn about this matter! Am I right, dear?"

Reaching with my hands to the back, I didn't even look to check if Elia got my drift before, almost instantly feeling her hand pulling on mine, as she climbed on top of the carriage and instantly reached for my side, pressing her bosom against the base of my arm.

"Dear, I'm all antsy Can you just kill him already so we can get back to the tent?"

With her voice silent enough to appear natural, yet loud enough for Peter to hear it through the distance separating us, the bait was even more successful than I expected. Despite the gap between us, I could clearly see his entire body tensing up as he raised his sabre with the intention to call his men to charge.

"Men! Put your muskets down!"

Before he could finish his order though, I set a strange order. In fact, I did it only for the sake of confusing both Peter and his people, with no declaration of surrender following my words.

"Men, charge!"

"Reapers, fire!"

Those two commands resounded in the air at the same time, yet the visible confusion of the cavalrymen bough those few precious seconds required for the crews on the carriages to pull the guns up to their proper shooting position, confirm the lock on the magazines and the ignition on the fuse, before two of them, on the opposite sides of the circle simultaneously pressed the pedal, pushing the burning knots inside the firing chambers, as the loaders instantly pushed the magazines down.