The Journal of Brother Solomon

Part 27

In which the Broo horde attacks!

Moonday, Truthweek, Earthseason, 614 TA – dawn

Literally minutes before the expected attack, Teddy arrives from Fotheringay Hall, but Fatima is not with him. I think he may have visited Borke’s Drift before because he’s surprised to see our impromptu defences.

The palisade links the Matari barn, John Chard’s forge and one hovel to form a lopsided romboidal compound with stakes and a series of camouflaged holes on the outside face. We were expecting the Broo horde to come from the west but Ariella spied from her watch on the Wind Temple that they’ve swung around to the south and will come in the same way we did yesterday, past Otto Witt’s cottage.

Ariella breathlessly announces that we’ve less than a minute until they attack!

I call up Eleanor – I warn her we’re about to battle Broo, that they are utterly foul beings and I will fully understand if she needs to withdraw, it could well be too much for her. She assures me that she’ll be fine but warns me that if I lose consciousness, she will have to withdraw.

If the Broo come up the southern track they will almost certainly storm the west palisade so we put the bulk of our force over there, including six peasant slingers, supported by Ariella, Rufus, George, John Chard, Gerd Adendorff and Warwick Roberts (a Selenite soldier visiting his mother – a late and very welcome find). The rest are scattered around the north and east palisades. I take a central position because I have no facility with missiles and I want to be best placed to support any weak spots. Bitey takes command of the north palisade.

Rufus starts at the left end of the west palisade, casting a generous Protection on anyone who needs it, using local children to provide the power (he casts the spell and sends a child off to be replaced by another, but we want them all in the barn once the fighting starts).

Eleanor and I cast Strength, Parry and Bladesharp on me and my weapons. Then Eleanor and I both prepare our only offensive spell, Disruption. The others cast their spells in preparation and ready their various missile weapons.

We hear strange, uncouth whooping noises and suddenly the Broo are there! One of them is huge, Troll-sized, at least twice my height. Another is wearing full mail armour – most strange for Broo, presumably the leader. Two of the Broo look oddly blurry – Chaos!

The slingers let fling their stones – there’s a couple of hits but they’re fairly ineffective, I don’t think any of them know Speedart.

George’s arrows hit the huge Broo in the leg. After casting a spell, Rufus shouts that the huge Broo has Countermagic. Ariella hits a Broo in the head with her arrows but Broo have hard heads. Eleanor and I cast our Disruptions at the Broo with a Unicorn horn, which I remember battling in our bedchamber in Hillsgreen Crossing, but it also has Countermagic. Finally Gerd shoots one arrow with Speedart that ricochets off armour followed by another (without Speedart) that takes a Broo in the head, putting it down – first kill to Gerd!

Someone shouts that six Broo led by the one in mail have passed out of sight behind Otto’s hovel – a flanking force. Most of the rest charge the west palisade. I move over to the right to keep an eye on three unsupported slingers on the west palisade and also on the north palisade, in case I’m needed there. I hear John Chard shout out to the east palisade defenders to watch out for the flankers.

The slingers shoot again with better effect – I see two Broo go down with hits in head, leg and arm. George hits the huge Broo in a leg, leaving it hopping, a fine shot. Rufus readies his throwing axe but the Broo aren’t close enough yet. Warwick throws his discus and his target can no longer use his arm. Ariella hits a Broo shield. Gerd shoots one of the blurry Broo twice in the arm and it goes down.

Eleanor casts another speedart, backed by a bit more Power – she reports it hit the Unicorn Broo but with no noticeable effect.

The slingers let fly one last time, scoring a couple of good hits but their targets don’t fall. George, Ariella and Gerd all shoot, hitting mainly shields. Rufus throws his axe but I can’t see if he hits anything.

Then the Broo are at our western defences! About half of them thread their way past the stakes and holes and reach the palisade, but some are held up. Rufus has made is way to the right of the west palisade so I shift southward where three unsupported slingers are facing hostile Broo between Ariella and George. I hear Ariella’s Broo make revolting offers to her while battering the fence with its axe.

I see all three peasants in front of me are fully engaged. A thrown tomahawk misses George and the thrower falls in a hole. Further along, a tomahawk hits Warwick’s shield. John Chard’s Broo falls in a hole but the Broo’s tomahawk hits him – luckily John is in heavy armour. The next Broo along can’t get past the stakes but its tomahawk hits the palisade. The peasant next along takes a tomahawk in the chest and falls over backwards. Gerd is missed by another tomahawk.

I was going to replace the middle of the three peasants in front of me but I notice the one on my right is facing a Broo attacking insanely. I take advantage of a momentary pause to take his place.

Three places to my left, Ariella parries her Broo, still propositioning her in perfect Lunatic, but misses with her own riposte. The peasant next to her hits his Broo, which misses the peasant – the Broo fights on, however. The peasant to my left hits the Unicorn Broo but the Broo attacks the palisade.

George’s Broo has yet to reach us so he helps me with the fanatic; George hits Mr Fanatic in the chest – it’s down! …but then it’s back up again – that Azrael-damned divint! I parry the Broo’s axe and George courteously parries its butt for me – it’s attacking twice, neglecting to parry! Excellent! That should make it a lot easier to kill…

…but my cut goes awry, scything uselessly over its head! I’m shocked – how could I be so stupid, so complacent!

Meanwhile, Warwick damages his Broo’s shield and is missed in return. Then Rufus steps up to replace the felled peasant…

…only to scream and fall himself, clutching his head – is he dead? That was some foul Chaos magic!

And Gerd is hit by another foul magic and suddenly he’s a woman! But that doesn’t stop him deftly parrying his Broo and stabbing it in the guts with his rapier – that Broo falls out of sight!

The Broo held up by our defences now make it to the palisade so George will have his hands full from now on and I must deal with Mr Fanatic by myself. I hear someone shout that the Broo flanking force are scaling the far wall of the Matari barn – if they try to cut holes in the roof, they’ll encounter the Fieldward but some of our free men enter the barn to deal with any intruders.

Tony Durnford, the Matari priest, with his dog, crosses to the fallen peasant lying next to Rufus, presumably to heal them. Two more Broo take advantage of Rufus’ fall to assail the barricade while the Broo that killed him mounts the barrier, the rest pass behind the small hovel, aiming for the north palisade. Warwick shouts, “Anyone free, go right!”

…is anyone free?

Ariella hits her Broo in the leg but can’t penetrate its leather armour. It misses her. The peasant next to her batters his Broo’s shield but can’t stop the Broo from hitting him in the face. The peasant next to me trades parries with the Unicorn Broo.

My Broo seems utterly demented, flailing at me with its axe but, even though I’m quailing inside, I manage a textbook parry with my shield (which still isn’t notched). I hit Mr Fanatic but, like Ariella, I can’t get any muscle into the blow and it just creases its leathers. Mr Fanatic vents his frustration by headbutting the palisade.

George hits his Broo in the leg but gets hit in the head for his trouble – luckily his helmet saves him. Warwick exchanges parries with his Broo. John does the same with his. One of the peasants fells his Broo with a pitchfork in the head. Gerd stabs the Broo that felled Rufus in the arm, preventing use of its axe, but can’t stop it climbing over the palisade. Gerd turns in time to parry the Broo that replaced the one crawling away, holding its guts in, but can’t stop the new Broo axing the palisade.

Bitey shouts that he’s thrown his axe and then got hit by Broo tomahawks but if he’s shouting then they can’t have hurt too much. It sounds like they’re fully engaged down there, though. The Matari priest is healing the fallen peasant but he can’t heal Rufus without Xenohealing so his ally dog casts Heal on the Beaver (but it will be a while before he recovers enough to rejoin the fight).