Arganda handled reports from the other areas of the battlefield—the man was wounded badly enough he could not fight, and there was no one with enough of the Power left to spare for Healing. He did his job well. Good man. Mat could have used him in the Band.
The Trollocs gathered for their push, again moving bodies out of the way, forming into fists with Myrddraal leading them. That would give Mat five or ten minutes to get ready. Then it would come.
Lan walked over, expression grim. "What would you have my men do, Cauthon?"
"Get ready to fight those Trollocs", Mat said. "Has anyone checked with Mayene lately? Now would be a wonderful time to get back a few ranks of men who have been Healed".
"I will check on it for you", Lan said. "And then I will prepare my men".
Mat dug in his saddlebags as Lan withdrew. He pulled out Rand’s banner, the one of the ancient Aes Sedai. He’d gathered it earlier, thinking perhaps it might have some use. "Somebody hoist this thing up. We’re fighting in Rand’s bloody name. Let’s show the Shadow we’re proud of it".
Dannil took the banner, finding a spear to use as a pole. Mat took a deep breath. The way the Borderlanders spoke, they thought this would end in a glorious, heroic, suicidal charge. That was how Thom’s songs always ended . . . the kinds of songs Mat had hoped to never find himself in. Faint hope that was, now.
Think, think. In the distance, the Trolloc horns started blowing. Tuon had delayed. Was she going to come? He hoped, secretly, she would not. With the battle going so poorly, even the Seanchan might not be enough.
He needed an opening. Come on, luck! Another gateway opened, and Arganda went to collect the messenger’s report. Mat did not need to hear to realize the kind of news it was, as when Arganda returned, he was frowning.
"All right", Mat said, sighing. "Give me your news".
"The Queen of Andor is dead", Arganda said.
Bloody Ashes! Not Elayne! Mat felt a lurch inside. Rand . . . I'm sorry. "Who leads there? Bashere?"
"Dead", Arganda said. "And his wife. They fell during an attack against the Andoran pikemen. We’ve lost six Aiel clan chiefs as well. Nobody leads the Andorans or the Aiel at the riverbed. They’re crumbling fast".
"This is the end!" Demandred’s augmented voice washed across Mat from the other end of the plateau. "Lews Therin has abandoned you! Cry out to him as you die. Let him feel your pain".
They had arrived at the last few moves in their game, and Demandred had played well. Mat looked over his army of exhausted troops, many of them wounded. There was no denying it, they were in a desperate situation.
"Send for the Aes Sedai", Mat said. "I don’t care if they say they can’t lift a feather. Maybe when it comes down to their lives, they’ll find a little strength for a fireball here and there. Besides, their Warders can still fight". Arganda nodded. Nearby, a gateway opened, and two beleaguered-looking Asha’man stumbled out. Naeff and Neald bore scorch marks on their skins, and Naeff’s Aes Sedai was not with them.
"Well?" Mat asked the three.
"It is done", Neald said with a growl.
"What of Tuon?"
"They found the spy, apparently", Naeff said. "The Empress is waiting to return on your mark".
Mat breathed in, tasting the battlefield air, feeling the rhythm of the fighting he had set up. He didn’t know if he could win, even with Tuon. Not with Elayne’s army in disarray, not with the Aes Sedai weakened to the point of being unable to channel. Not without Egwene, her Two Rivers stubbornness, her iron backbone. Not without a miracle.
"Send for her, Naeff", Mat said. He called for paper and a pen, and scribbled a note, which he handed off to the Asha’man. He shoved aside the selfish desire to let Tuon fly to safety. Bloody ashes, there was no safety, not anywhere. "Give this to the Empress, Naeff; tell her these instructions must be followed exactly".
Then Mat turned to Neald. "I want you to go to Talmanes", he said. "Have him move forward with the plan".
The two channelers left, off to deliver their messages.
"Will it be enough?" Arganda asked.
"No", Mat said.
"Then why?"
"Because I’ll be a Darkfriend before I’ll let this battle go without trying everything, Arganda".
"Lews Therin!" Demandred boomed. "Come face me! I know you watch this battle! Join it! Fight!"
"I sure am growing tired of that man", Mat said.
"Cauthon, look, those Trollocs have regrouped", Arganda said. "I think they are about to attack".
"Then this is it; lets form up", Mat said. "Where is Lan; has he come back yet? I’d hate to do this without him".
Mat turned, scanning the lines for him, as Arganda shouted orders. His attention was drawn back suddenly as Arganda grabbed his arm, pointing toward the Trollocs. Mat felt a chill as he saw in the light of bonfires a lone horseman on a black stallion charge into the right flank of the Trolloc horde, making for the eastern slope of the Heights. Toward Demandred. Lan had gone to fight a war on his own.
The Trollocs ripped at Olver’s arm in the night, reaching into the crack, trying to pry him free. Others dug at the sides, and soil streamed in onto him, sticking to the tears on his cheeks and the blood flowing from his scratches.
He couldn’t stop shaking. He also couldn’t make himself move. He trembled, terrified, as the beasts pried at him with filthy fingers, digging closer and closer.
Loial sat on a stump, resting before the battle picked up again.
A charge. Yes, that would be a good way for this to end. Loial felt sore all over. He had read a great deal about battle, and had been in fights before, so he had known what to expect. But knowing a thing and experiencing it were completely different; that was why he’d left the stedding in the first place.
After more than a day of nonstop fighting, his limbs burned with a deep, inner fatigue. When he raised his axe, the head felt so heavy he wondered why it didn’t break the shaft.
War. He could have lived his life without experiencing this. It was so much more than the frantic battle at the Two Rivers had been. There, at least, they’d had time to remove the dead and care for their wounded. There, it had been a matter of standing firm and holding against waves of attacks.
Here, there was no time to wait, no time to think. Erith sat down on the ground beside his stump, and he put a hand on her shoulder. She closed her eyes and leaned against him. She was beautiful, with perfect ears and wonderful eyebrows. Loial did not look at the bloodstains on her clothing; he feared some of it was hers. He rubbed her shoulder with fingers so tired he could barely feel them.
Loial had taken some notes on the battlefield, for himself and for others, to keep track of how the battle had gone so far. Yes, a final attack. That would make for a good ending to the story, once he wrote it.
He pretended that he would still write the story. There was no harm to such a little lie.
One rider burst from the ranks of their soldiers, galloping toward the Trolloc right flank. Mat would not be happy about that. One man, alone, would die. Loial was surprised that he could feel sorrow for that man’s life lost, after all of the death he had seen.
That man looks familiar, Loial thought. Yes, it was the horse. He’d seen that horse before, many times. Lan, he thought, numb. Lan is the one riding out alone.
Loial stood.
Erith looked up at him as he shouldered his axe.
"Wait", Loial said to her. "Fight alongside the others. I must go".
"Go?"
"I need to witness this", Loial said. The fall of the last king of the Malkieri. He would need to include it in his book.
"Prepare to charge!" Arganda yelled. "Men, form up! Archers at the front, cavalry next, foot soldiers prepare to come up behind!"
A charge, Tam thought. Yes, that is our only hope. They had to continue their push, but their line was so thin. He could see what Mat had been trying, but it wasn’t going to work.
They needed to fight it through anyway.
"Well, he is dead", a mercenary said from near Tam, nodding toward Lan Mandragoran as he rode toward the Trolloc flank. "Bloody Borderlanders".
"Tam . . ". Abell said from beside him.
Above them, the sky grew darker. Was that possible, at night? Those terrible, boiling clouds seemed to come lower and lower. Tam almost lost Lan’s figure atop the midnight stallion, despite the bonfires burning on the Heights. Their light seemed feeble.
He’s riding for Demandred, Tam thought. But there’s a wall of Trollocs in the way. Tam took out an arrow with a resin-soaked rag tied behind the head and nocked it into his bow. "Two Rivers men, prepare to fire!"
The mercenary nearby laughed. "That’s a hundred paces at least! You’ll fill him with arrows if anything".
Tam eyed the man, then took his arrow and thrust the end into a torch. The bundled rag behind the head came alight with fire. "First rank, on my signal!" Tam yelled, ignoring the other orders that came down the line. "Let’s give Lord Mandragoran a little something to guide his way!"
Tam drew in a fluid motion, the burning rag warming his fingers, and loosed.
Lan charged toward the Trollocs. His lance, and its three replacements, had all shattered hours ago. At his neck, he wore the cold medallion that Berelain had sent through the gateway with a simple note.
I do not know how Galad ended up with this, but I believe he wished me to send it to Cauthon.
Lan did not consider what he was doing. The void did not allow such things. Some men would call it brash, foolhardy, suicidal. The world was rarely changed by men who were unwilling to try being at least one of the three. He sent what comfort he could to distant Nynaeve through the bond, then prepared to fight.
As Lan neared the Trollocs, the beasts set up a spear line to stop him. A horse would impale itself trying to push through that. Lan drew in breath, calm within the void, planning to slice the head off the first spear, then ram his way through the line.
It was an impossible maneuver. All the Trollocs would need to do was squeeze together and slow him. After that, they could overwhelm Mandarb and pull Lan from the saddle.
But someone had to destroy Demandred. With the medallion at his neck, Lan raised his sword.
A flaming arrow streaked down from the sky and hit the throat of the Trolloc right in front of Lan. Without hesitation, Lan used the fallen Trolloc as an opening in the line of spears. He crashed between the Shadowspawn, trampling the fallen one. He would need to—
Another arrow fell, dropping a Trolloc. Then another fell, and another, in quick succession. Mandarb crashed through the confused, burning and dying Trollocs as an entire rain of burning arrows dropped in front of him. "Malkier!" Lan yelled, heeling Mandarb forward, trampling corpses but maintaining speed as the way opened. A hail of light dropped before him, each arrow precise, killing a Trolloc that tried to stand before him.
He thundered through the ranks, shoving aside dying Trollocs, flaming arrows guiding his way in the darkness like a roadway. The Trollocs stood thick on either side, but those in front of him dropped and dropped until there were no more.