Ellis pushed and shoved his way
back to the circus convoy as quickly as he could, but even so it took him
almost ten minutes, by which time the circus as he had known it had already
begun to reform as something else, something completely new. The animal cages were opening, the
performers were arming and the wagons - those idyllic transports of lazy summer
evenings, were sprouting countless hypostatickal devices of the kind Ellis had
grown familiar with during operation SHOALSTRIKE. There were all manner of projectile throwing, blade swinging, smoke
spewing armatures and suddenly each wagon became something akin to a monstrous
mechanical beast. The transformation
was as rapid as it was unexpected and it was only as Ellis was leaving the
crowd to join this circus-that-was-not-a-circus, that the heads of those hoping
to cross the border began to turn, the mouths of those screaming for attention
began to drop open and the feet of those who were nearly too weary to stand
suddenly found the energy to start running.
The chaos was blossoming behind
Ellis like some kind of human firework display as he hurried through the ranks
of those he had thought of as porters and performers, searching for the Former
Baron and some kind of explanation. He
was confused, more than a little scared and also kind of hurt that Von Spektr
had not seen fit to fill him in on any of this. Nevertheless he grabbed a sword when one was handed to him and
strapped it on as he continued his search.
The Former Baron was, perhaps
predictably, standing over a makeshift bench in the heart of the circus convoy
when Ellis finally found him and, perhaps even more predictably, he was reading
some plans.
"What is all this?"
Ellis asked, trying to sound much calmer than he felt, "I thought we were
supposed to be sneaking in! I thought
this was all a show to put on so the Khalif would let us get near him!"
"That was one plan, yes,
and a very good one, even if I do say so myself, but the Kahn and I agreed that
that might not be enough, and even if it was there might come a time when more
desperate measures were required."
"But... all of this? This ought to have been impossible!"
"Why dear boy, with
Irfan's resources and my ingenuity very little has proven to be impossible,
even in as short a timescale as we had to work with. Really, if we'd had him on board when we tried to take back the
Ebon Crest, it would have gone much, much more smoothly."
"But the porters,"
Ellis complained, "and the performers!
They're, like, soldiers now, or something."
"Oh, nothing as regimented
as that, but in the cutthroat world of travelling entertainment everyone has to
have some skill with a blade. No, no,
no, those talents existed long before we got our hands on them and I imagine
Kerring wanted his circus to have a teeth." The Former Baron looked up from his plans and stared at Ellis
with such intensity that he found he had to look away. "Now, this really isn't the time for
this kind of discussion, my boy. The
crowd will already be alerting the crossing guards of our sudden
militarisation, so we have very little time to lose. If you would be so good as to form up with the other porters, I'm
sure Nadiyya will be happy to give you orders."
Ellis tried not to huff as he
marched towards the area of cleared ground in the centre of the convoy where
the porters were now standing in their ranks - though how they knew what their
ranks were was beyond Ellis. He found a
spot near the back and listened as Nadiyya told them what they were to do in
the harsh tones of a commander. It did
not surprise Ellis that she sounded harsh, but the authority in her voice was
new; a reminder, perhaps, that she really was a princess of sorts. After listening for a while it became clear
that the porters were to make up the bulk of the infantry of their little
makeshift army, whilst the performers would use their more specialist talents
to flank whatever resistance there was and cause chaos and the wagons would
blast ahead, breaking their lines of defence.
A quick glance at the border told Ellis that the crossing guards were
now well aware of what was happening, although perhaps still rather
under-prepared, and were forming up with their own forces.
All this had taken a little
over ten minutes and when a horn blew to sound the advance and Nadiyya shouted,
'forward!', Ellis was surprised to find that they were ready, even if he wasn't
entirely, and it was a formidable force that advanced through the
still-scattering crowd towards the border.
The wagons began firing their
weapons so that their projectiles rained over the heads of the enemy, blasting
the road behind them and causing at least some of them to scatter for
shelter. These disruptive shots were
answered by a volley of fire from the border guards, but this was mostly
deflected by the makeshift armour of the front lines of the porters and, though
Ellis could feel his heart in his ears, he remained well away from the danger.
Whilst the riflemen were
reloading, Nadiyya shouted, ‘Charge!’ and suddenly Ellis was being propelled
forwards by his comrades as they ran towards the disorganised lines of crossing
guards, assorted weaponry in hand. He
saw the first wave hit in a cloud of cudgel blows, punches, kicks and
stabs. It was not, of course,
bloodless, but he was surprised by how much the porters were trying to prevent
injury to the enemy even as they attempted to incapacitate them. And then he was upon them himself and it was
all he could do to beat the guards back with the hilt of his sword.
For what seemed a very long
time, but which Ellis later supposed couldn’t have been more than a few
minutes, he fought with all the strength, stamina and skill he could
muster. Wielding a sword in anger was a
tiring thing, but more than that the emotional drain of being forced to injure
those around you for fear that they might otherwise injure you was more than
Ellis had anticipated. During LARP
battles it had always been fun, light-hearted even when they were acting the
part of hardened warriors. In real
life, as Ellis had learnt during Operation SHOALSTRIKE, battles were terrible
things and to kill another was neither glorious, nor thrilling – only
necessary. Fortunately he was able to
knock out most of those who threatened him and he drew serious blood only once,
but that was enough, he thought, as he watched a young guardsman fall to the
ground, clutching at the point where he had been pierced, trying desperately,
though ever more feebly, to prevent his life from being pumped away. Ellis had walked away from that one, into
the thinning throng of battle, dazed and unsure.
He was roused by one of the
porters he had been practising with during the journey, who shook him by the
shoulders and shouted into his ears, “We’ve broken through their lines!” Ellis blinked at him, confused, until he
shouted again, “We’re supposed to disperse now – make it hard for them to find
us. Come with me!”
The porter grabbed his arm and
started tugging him away from the highway and into a maze of streets all
leading in the general direction of the great arch at the centre of Shadedstreams and all Ellis could do was follow,
passive once more, with the guilt and fear of his action thrumming in his
chest.
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