Freedom Fighters of Trelandar
A Tale of Adventure in the Second Dark Age
Book Nine of the Warlady Series
By Jerome B. Bigge
Chapter Fifteen
     
"What are you doing?" Carl whispered, seeing me there in the
darkness standing by the window looking out towards the ocean. I
noticed the direction of the wind, the lack of any Moon, the sky
being cloudy, memories of military tactics going through my mind.
I had gotten up earlier to relieve myself, noticed the wind, how
it had changed, the way that the sky had clouded up, everything.
     
"We are seventy miles to the south of Trella," I told him.
     
"So?" Carl asked, only a darker shadow against the sheet.
     
"We have an `unprotected flank'," I replied, looking out.
     
"And we've been `holding' the Imperials..." he breathed.
     
"Darlanis does have an excellent navy," I replied quietly.
     
"And it is thirty miles to our lines," my husband ventured.
     
"If I were Darlanis, and I had what she has..." I mused now.
     
"This isn't a good place to be staying," he concluded here.
     
"The defenses are inadequate," I said, remembering what I'd
seen of the place. Darlanis would need a harbor, somewhere where
her ships could anchor, unload cargo, a "beachhead". Where she'd
be able to force Paula to fight against forces front and back at
the same time. My sister's present position such that the Empire
had to cross open ground against well entrenched heavy armament
on the further bank of a river, one deep enough that it would be
necessary to swim across it against fire from the opposite bank.
The river being wide enough that one could hardly shoot across it
with a good bow (220 yards) while the defender had the advantage
of being able to maintain a constant "fire" upon anyone crossing.
No doubt the Imperials might be able to cross, but their losses
would be high enough that even Darlanis wouldn't want to do it...
     
"It would have taken her `time' to make preparations," Carl
spoke, slipping out of bed, groping around for his own clothing
while I finished dressing myself, trying to gather up my things.
     
"She is no doubt aware of the phase of the Moon," I said.
     
"The wind was from the east earlier today," he ventured.
     
"And it is now from the west north west," I now replied.
     
"The element of surprise would be on her side," he noted.
     
"It is a tactic that I would have used," I said, recalling a
time long ago when I'd been helping Darlanis with her studies...
Darlanis like most Warrioresses seeing the ocean as a "barrier",
not as a "roadway" that could be used to transport you elsewhere.
Carl now striking a light, and getting our things all together.

     
"It's just after five in the morning," Carl said as we went
out the back door of the tavern to the stables, both of us bur-
dened down with our things, my bow, Carl's crossbow, the missiles
for our weapons. The late night "chilly", a dampness in the air.
The little town quiet, the only sound that of the night insects.
     
"I could be mistaken about all this," I said to him then.
     
"Better safe than sorry," he said, opening the stable door.
     
"Here's a lantern," I said, holding up my "lighter" here.*

* This was a device much like a common cigarette lighter. (JBB)

     
"We'll take a ride down to the harbor," Carl said to me as
he climbed up into the saddle, our unicorns not all that delight-
ed by being awoke from a sound sleep. We could always find some
other place to stay. Somewhere further inland or a place on the
sea that didn't offer any safe "anchorage" for enemy ships here.
The defense consisted of three batteries of catapults, three such
weapons to a battery, the batteries placed so that they could be
used to place an enemy ship under a deadly crossfire. Trella had
used similar defenses, although far heavier, with steam catapults
that could hurl missiles as far as seven hundred yards. Such are
completely useless on board ships, which used the more common one
that is manually wound up, and can fire say about a quarter mile.
The total force of guardsmen here consisting just over a hundred.
Not enough by any means to fight off any sort of an invasion now.
     
"That sounds like a good... What's That!?" I cried, seeing a
flaming missile of some sort rising up into the sky and then come
falling back down! The missile having been fired from the water!
     
"They used those at Trella!" Carl answered my question now!*

* Firebombs were known before Lorraine, but appear to have been
an "invention" of Princess Tara who served as Darlanis' "military
advisor" during her original invasion of Trelandar... The major
reason such weapons were never in common use was due to the caste
codes that forbade their use in naval warfare. It being notewor-
thy here that Lorraine herself never used such weapons in ship to
ship warfare even although she was in possession of a more "per-
fected" version. She once said to me that in a way she felt it
had been a mistake for her to ever develop such weapons. (Sanda)

     
"We can `fight' or run," I said, feeling my unicorn move be-
neath me. We wouldn't be able to stop the invasion, but we might
be able to take a toll of the Imperials, kill a few of them here.
The fires would provide ample light for archery, along with the
confusion that would be a part of things too as they came ashore.
I saw a fire missile arch up into the air from the shore, proof
at least that the guardsmen here were competent at their duties.
That someone had been alert, awake enough here to give the alarm.
     
"I am of the Warriors," Carl Talen said, kicking his unicorn
into movement. "You ride, give warning to our forces," he added.
     
"First we fight, then we ride out of here!" I answered, un-
slinging my compound bow, that wonderful weapon that could shoot
an arrow two hundred and fifty yards. So easy to hold at draw...
A couple dozen arrows in a quiver fixed to my saddle now at hand.
     
"It is good to have a Warrioress at one's side!" he laughed!
     
"Sometimes I do forget that I am but just a Scribe!" I said!
An alarm bell being sounded as we galloped down the street, the
glow of the fires visible now ahead of us as people looked out of
their windows, peering down the street at the disturbance. More
of the deadly missiles rising up into the air to start more fires
as people started to become aware now of what was happening here!
Our own catapults answering, although it is harder to hit a ship
than it is to fire towards a target that you can't miss hitting.
I was puzzled as how little was being fired back, considering we
had nine catapults mounted, as well as some lighter ballistaes.
     
"There!" Carl cried, pointing, the enemy ships visible now,
darker shadows against the sea. The shore defenses here consist-
ed of three batteries of catapults, with only one battery firing!
It being obvious that the Imperials had already landed a force of
men from small boats, attempting to do the same thing here that
they had at Trella, obviously quite "successfully" too, I saw! I
suspected that it was possible that they'd had "help", that there
were "enemies" in our midst, people who "posed" as refugees, but
were in reality actually now members of Darlanis' own military as
well as Trelandarians who for gold were willing to betray us now.
     
"There are boats!" I cried, urging my unicorn forward, the
craft like insects now crawling over the dark surface of the sea!
Most of the harbor frontage now aflame, people running about like
ants when their nest is disturbed. Dark against the brightness!!

     
It has always been my belief here that had we developed the
"militias" that so successfully have always defended Dularn, it
is very likely that there never would have been an "Empire of
California". That instead we might have seen a sort of a "feder-
ation" of a sort that actually developed later on with Lorraine.
Unlike earlier wars between the city states that formed after The
War as Mankind gradually over the centuries "rebuilt", Darlanis
was the first to reintroduce the sort of "warfare" that was quite
commonplace back in the 20th Century. The use of massive armies,
the use of military conscription, of conquest and occupation that
she must have learned from the history books that she read. She
was a woman with a "dream", and she came close to realizing it...

     
"This is close enough!" Carl cried, yanking his unicorn to a
halt, tying it to a hitching post, I doing the same with my mare.
     
"A hot time in the old town tonight!" I giggled, slinging my
quiver of arrows over my shoulder while Carl fixed his quiver of
crossbow bolts to his hip, cocking his weapon and loading a bolt.
The boats of the Imperials were holding off, men in them now fir-
ing arrows and crossbow bolts at the docks, while their ships now
maintained a steady stream of fire upon our own defenders here.
Such a "fire" of course serving to "demoralize" our own people to
some degree, especially those who lived here in town and saw ev-
erything they owned going up in flames. The tactical use of this
being an "invention" of Princess Tara, who was perhaps more aware
of military history than anyone else from what is known of her...
     
"Why are those boats holding off?" Carl mused, the craft be-
yond good bow shot, perhaps a hundred and fifty yards here. They
were firing towards shore, although it was unlikely that they had
much of anything to "aim" at but the entire dockside before them.
The fires already set by their fire bombs lighting everything up.
     
"They're waiting for their reinforcements!" I breathed out!
This was an attack much like the one on Trella, but now in a far
smaller scale, only a few hundred men at the best, but with the
exact same "tactics" here that Darlanis had used so successfully!
The old basic "battle tactics" every member of the Warriors and
the Warrioresses knows. That double flanking movement that you
use as soon as you meet any resistance that you can get around...
Modified just a bit to better fit the situation here, I thought!
It being obvious here that the ships had no doubt discharged most
of their forces, that they were only a diversion here to draw our
fire while the main part of the force came creeping in from the
darkness! Tactics that left no doubts about Darlanis' abilities!
The fact that the two outer batteries had been "silenced" without
giving an alarm speaking well of the capabilities of her forces!*

* I later learned that this was an attack using the agents of the
Empire that had been "planted" in among us months before. Women
posing as prostitutes, men as drifters, refugees from the north.
It being Darlanis' intentions here of cutting in "behind" Paula's
forces, trapping my sister between two hostile forces. It would
have worked save for the fact that Darlanis had not taken into
consideration here that Trelandar also had forces in "depth" yet.
She also apparently attempted this with too "small" a force for
fear that our spies would warn Paula of what she was up to here.

     
"We'll do the best we can, then get out of here," Carl said.
The tone of his voice leaving no doubts as to his thoughts here.
We might kill a few, but the outcome of this invasion was without
doubt. Darlanis would get her "beachhead", and more of Trelandar
would be lost, never to be regained as she "chewed" away at us...
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