The Radiant War

Chapter 9b

     They hadn't travelled more than a couple of hundred yards before the scout returned. “Radiants up ahead!” he said. “Three of them, low to the ground, blocking the road. I’m pretty sure they saw me but they didn’t pursue.”

     “They're going to encircle the town first,” guessed Tyrell. “Then move in together, massacring everyone they come across.”

     “And we’re inside the circle! What do we do?”

     “Hide, and pray to Those Above that they overlook us in the carnage. You're a local?” The man nodded. “We need a small side road with plenty of cover. Trees and so forth.”

     “The Bailey farm,” replied the scout. “There's a copse of trees between the paddock and the hay barn big enough to hid all of us plus the wagon, but everyone else will have the same idea.” He indicated the civilians sharing the road with them.”

     Tyrell cursed. “Maybe we shouldn’t have warned them,” he muttered. “Kept them all in the town. It's not as if many of them are going to survive, even out here.”

     “And could you have lived with yourself if we hadn't given them this chance, small though it is? Besides, they could see that something was up. They'd be running anyway.”

     “Yeah. Okay, take us to the copse. No, wait. It's autumn. The crops are high, aren't they?”

     “Ready for harvest," the scout replied, "and the Carrowmen are screaming because there’s no-one left to harvest it. They're starving, there's food all around and all the farmers have fled before them.”

     “Take us to the nearest field of maize," Tyrell ordered. "We'll hide there until they’re past.”

     “You can't hide in a cornfield from creatures that can look down from above!”

     “But they’re not up above, are they? You said they’re down close to the ground, blocking the road.”

     “The man nodded. “Yeah, it might work. There's a side turning fifty yards on.”

     “Lead on, Private.”

     The man nodded and took his place at the head of their column. When they came to the side turning they stopped and unloaded the wagon, two of the cavalrymen carrying Andrea’s stretcher between them. Tyrell glanced ahead, dreading to see the Radiants coming into view through the trees that flanked the winding road. From somewhere up ahead suddenly came the sound of screaming, followed by the terrified bleating of sheep and the whinnying of horses.

     Tyrell saw two of the youngest cavalrymen sharing a look of naked fear as they imagined what was happening to the first of the civilians who'd reached the Radiants. The rest would be hanging back, they knew. Staring at their monstrous adversaries and at their former friends and neighbours who'd just been cursed back to their animal forms. Even now, more Radiants were probably arriving to form a cordon across the countryside, meaning that there'd be no escape by leaving the road. The scene up ahead, and on all the other roads leading away from the town, would be turning into scenes of nightmare as it finally came home to the townspeople the fate that awaited them. Many would try to return to the town, hoping that the soldiers would be able to defend them, but Tyrell knew that they wouldn’t even be able to defend themselves.

     “Push the wagon off the road,” he ordered. “Unsaddle the horses and leave them to roam. Hopefully they won’t go far and we’ll be able to find them again afterwards.”

     “The townspeople will take them,” someone said. “They'll think they'll be able to escape on horseback.”

     “Maybe we can escape that way,” suggested another, pointing ahead down the road. “Just ride through them. Radiants can't keep up with a galloping horse.”