Chapter 15

Author’s note: [ and ] delineate mind-to-mind dialog.

Though they were at the edge of the effective range, Hippolyte instructed the scorpion shooters to try to pick off anyone who looked like he was giving instructions. Since everyone was dressed pretty much the same way, this was a case of guessing unless a person was actually seen to be giving orders.

The mob was rather foolishly standing close together in front of our gate through the wall, so a miss of the primary target was almost sure to hit a man standing close by. Therefore there were very few wasted shots. The arrows from the scorpions were massive enough to pass through the thin armor that most of the men were wearing. It was just too tiring to wear arrow-proof armor if one didn’t have to.

The scorpions were doing so much damage that Hippolyte gave in to the nagging from the ballista crews to let them take some shots. The crew on the right corner facing the gate decided that the boss of the mob, such as he was, should be close to the flag, so that was where they chose to aim their first shot. They aimed at the flag bearer with the knowledge that the missile was going to pass through him and penetrate several of the people who happened to be behind him.

That was what happened, and the shot was accurately fired. The missile passed completely through the flag bearer and into four other men directly behind him. That produced a great cheer from all of our people who saw the hit, and the ballista crew was greatly pleased by their success.

The other ballista that was facing in that direction fired at a lesser group just to the right of the flag bearer. This was a group of about a dozen men who were milling around a single individual, so that person might have been the boss just about to give some orders. The missile from this ballista penetrated the man who looked like he was the center of attention and also took out three other men just behind him.

Those two shots apparently made a major impression on all of the invaders who had seen the result. They immediately started pushing other people out of the way in an effort to escape the expected second shot. However, Hippolyte called a halt to the ballista firing because we did not have very many of the large missiles used by the ballistas. Naturally, this disappointed the ballista crews, but they did not argue the wisdom of Hippolyte’s order.

Nevertheless, Hippolyte let the scorpions continue to fire, and they brought down a man with practically every shot. We had started the fight with over 500 of the arrows for the scorpions, so there was not quite the need to conserve those missiles. The scorpion shooters were quite happy to continue shooting as long as Hippolyte was willing for them to do so. As it turned out, the mob of invaders had to back off nearly 500 yards before the scorpion fire got to be wasteful of arrows.

The people with the conventional crossbows were metaphorically green with envy because none of the invaders had gotten close enough for them to take a shot. All of us knew that the enemy would have to get inside the wall before the regular crossbows could do any effective shooting, but that did not quell the envy felt by the crossbow shooters. Oh, well, we all were sure that they would get their chance before the enemy was driven off.

Our outer wall, which was 10-12 feet high was proving to be an effective stopper for the invaders. They would have to come through the gate before they would be subjected to crossbow fire under the current circumstances. That showed us that we had blundered in one respect—we should have provided for more of the scorpions.

We had been reluctant to mount scorpions at the outer wall because we did not want to chance the enemy getting access to them and using them against us. Dammit, we had no effective way to shoot at the looters who were playing hell with the town. We had to do something about that!

There were spare parts for five more scorpions stored inside the fort. A short section of the firing platform behind the outer wall had been completed, so Hippolyte and I decided to assemble the five scorpions on the completed firing platform and use them to harass the looters. Maybe that would draw some of the invaders back into the fields of fire from the roof-mounted scorpions or even the ballistas.

Hippolyte and Janos organized the expedition to the wall with the scorpions. Janos put up a constant argument that he should be the one who went on the expedition to command their use, and he wanted to take 20 crossbowmen along with him to provide covering fire if the invaders tried to rush the scorpions while carrying ladders.

Neither Hippolyte nor I were in favor of exposing Janos to possible injury. We were so attached to his sexual capabilities that we were afraid of losing him. However, we did see the selfishness of that attitude and agreed that Janos could go as the leader of the expedition.

However, Hippolyte got the idea of leading her own expedition of fighters on horseback against the main camp of the invaders. She and Inor selected 12 additional men to go with them, so that was arranged, too. The idea was for the two expeditions to go out at the same time, since Janos’ group could provide covering fire for Hippolyte’s group if that became necessary. Naturally, the mayor and his cronies were all for the two expeditions since the houses of the rich were the first ones being hit by the looters.

Of course, there was no way that I was not going to join Hippolyte on her wild ride into danger. At least, I could contribute something by using my mace with her left hand and arm. Initially, Hippolyte would use her lance, but she would soon switch to her longsword; the lance was sure to jam up stuck in some bone fairly soon. I would have free use of her left side until she had to switch to her bow.

Hippolyte led the way from the fort to the gate in the wall. One of the men had come with us to open the gate. The riders dashed through and the gate was slammed closed. The man was going to remain at the gate to open it for us when we came back. Meanwhile, Janos had led his people to the shooting platform at the wall, and they were madly rushing to set up the scorpions.

I had suggested that Janos partially assemble the scorpions into three pieces which could be quickly put together at the wall. He had done that, and that work was what had delayed us from leaving the fort sooner. It took much less time to get the horses ready so we were waiting impatiently for Janos’ men to finish their preliminary work and be ready to go. A separate crew was to deliver the arrows to the wall, and they would be on that duty as long as the scorpions were in use there.

It only took about five minutes to complete the assembly of the scorpions once they had reached the shooting platform, so they were ready to cover us before we’d had time to get ourselves into trouble. Hippolyte led the cavalry directly at the largest accumulation of invaders, and we struck them before they were really ready for us. A few of them had managed to grab their swords, but the majority were still hunting for weapons and shields when we hit them.

Meanwhile, the scorpions were shooting at the fringes of this same crowd as we were finishing our first mad charge through their ranks. The secret of success in this type of attack was just that, to surprise the target and to keep up the pressure, never allowing them to regain their wits. I really had no idea of how successful we were because I was madly swinging my mace at any likely target. I honestly had no idea of how effective I was at killing the enemy, but later Hippolyte praised me for how effective I had been in combat. Okay, I took her word for it, but I was in no position to debate the point with her.

All I know was that we managed to demolish the group that Hippolyte had chosen to attack. How many were killed and how many ran away were beyond me, but Hippolyte said that we had done all that anybody could have done with such an attack. I did notice one thing, though, the other invaders had all run for the wagon train as if to defend it against our attack. I honestly don’t think that they could have done much against us because most of them were armed with shortswords, and they would have been totally ineffectual against us as long as we were on our horses. Our lances and longswords would have had the reach on them.