Galbradith

     As dawn broke over the Plains of Galbradith, the Mardots could be seen with their forces lined up along the base and up the slopes of the Heights Of Harkdudarti. Their forces consisted mainly of foot soldiers and cavalry. Their number appeared very great, but this was largely due to the reflections cast by the onyx shields which they carried. In their hurry to arrive upon the field they neglected to bring with them any artillery other than seven catapults which were now loaded and ready with boulders from the Heights. Tzimar did not see the many Jinds ships loaded with similar catapults, and so he had concentrated on rounding up more cavalry than artillery.
     Across the Plains, upon and below the Huradd Butte, massed the Jinds. Upon the Butte they had placed a formidable array of artillery including no less than fifteen catapults and thirty smaller harquebus which threw spiked, mace-like balls wrought of leaded bronze by means of the fusion between terbium and sulphur. At the base of the Huradd Butte the Jinds army waited anxiously in their armour of chain mail and breastplates woven of beryllium bronze.
     Hathuurn planned to attack at first light striking the Mardots' left flank with his foot soldiers while badgering the right flank with his missiles. Ragnar and Baeoinfaermn would lead the Jinds in the field against the Mardots' left to clear the way for Juye to sweep against the Mardots' center formation.
     The Jinds' lines began their push across the valley at the same time that the artillery poured a raking fire of shot into the Mardots who still held the Calin Pass. Ragnar's battalions were met by the Mardots under Greunweiln's warlord Jess-bier. With lances leveled and halberds thrashing before them, the Jinds tore into the Mardots lines who moved forward to meet them. At first the Mardots were forced back, their halberds of invar and ytterbium being no match for the Jinds' platinum weapons. Hacking through the Mardots lines as if through thin air, the Jinds moved almost effortlessly.
     Watching his army being cut asunder so, Greunweiln, from his position on the Harkdudarti Heights, ordered a regiment to lie down among a field of tall Sandro grasses, which the Jinds would soon reach if their push continued unabated, in order to ambush the Jinds. As the Jinds approached, not twenty paces away, the Mardots rose up and hurled stones into the Jinds ranks; the pelting with stones being followed by a shower of arrows from the Mardots archers. Trampling even their own as they built up momentum, the Jinds continued their fierce rush forward undaunted by the barrage. A terrible slaughter ensued, perhaps the bloodiest of the day, with great numbers on both sides spilling their blood among the Sandro grasses. Again the Mardots could not hold, and were forced back.
     "The gods are in slumber, and fail us" Greunweiln raged. He called forth his warlord, Abmirl, to launch a counterattack from the center. This one would succeed, The Balance In Space threatened. And so it did. The Jinds were driven back and forced to seek safety in the cover under the artillery barrage from the Butte.
     The Jinds recouped with Baeoinfaermn leading his regiments across the field toward the Mardots under Abmirl who had now taken cover behind a rock strewn portion of the Plains.
     A mighty warshout sounded from throats parched and clogged with the dust churned up from the Plains as the Jinds footsoldiers followed Baeoinfaermn into battle. With broadswords drawn and waving the Jinds tore over ground just previously lost. Into the rocky grounds they moved, as the Mardots again attempted an ambush. The fighting was hot and fierce in this contest. Twice the Jinds pushed the Mardots backward, smashing their onyx shields with strong blows from their scimitars and broadswords. Deftly they thrust the points of their swords between the breastplates and neckguards to impale the hearts of the Mardots. But each time they breached the lines, the Mardots recouped with a matching thrust, splitting Jinds heads open with their battle-axes cast of iron and manganese, and impaling them with pikes of burnished basalt.
     Into the midst of the fray, Baeoinfaermn rode on his equine beast, calling out orders to his Jindsmen while he swung his own halberd into the Mardots. Despite several slashes he had sustained upon his arms and legs, he held his ground, urging the Jinds on to victory. In later ages, the Jinds would recount his valor in their tales of this day. Thesla, a Mardots of fame in battle, cut a path toward The Wind What Canst Sleep, and called out to him, "Baeoinfaermn, thy hour is lost, prepare to warm my blade with the blood of your heart." Jumping from his steed, Baeoinfaermn squared off with Thesla. The crack of blade upon blade sounded loud and clear as the two parlayed blow against blow. Baeoinfaermn gritted his teeth as he slashed his sword against Thesla's shield. He did not carry a shield himself, so he was somewhat at a disadvantage, but he moved lithely out of reach of the Mardots' blade thrusts.
     A great gash appeared on Baeoinfaermn's left shoulder as the Mardots warrior's blade finally caught him. The force of the blow knocked Baeoinfaermn to the ground. Where he fell a poleax lay close by. The Wind What Canst Sleep grabbed the weapon, and jumping to his feet, he banged the poleax hard against Thesla's shield, shattering it in two. In the return swing the battle-ax cut deeply into Thesla's shoulder and neck, and the Mardots fell to ground dead.
     Baeoinfaermn glanced quickly around him, and saw that the number of men still fighting was dwindling fast. He called out to his Jinds warriors to quit the field in order to recoup on the far side of the tract of Sandro grasses. There they would assess their losses, and rest for a while before attempting another assault. The Mardots also chose to quit the field rather then chase the Jinds. They had lost heavily of their numbers, and welcomed rest also.
     Now it should be noted that up to this point the Jinds had refrained from casting illusions to aid them in their fighting. Their valor had been enough to sustain them. But now, with the left field in stalemate, and no end to the fight in view, Ragnar (who's rested troops had taken to the field once more to join with those under Baeoinfaermn) conferred with The Wind What Canst Sleep about using an illusion or two. He had seen through Tzimar's feeble attempt at illusion earlier in the day (for it was merely an illusion of Sandro grasses in which the Mardots had hidden), and he guessed that this might be the extent of the Mardots' power in the casting of illusions, for the casting of illusion is a strenuous business. Ragnar's plan was to cast the illusion of an horde of Jinds warriors to meet the Mardots, which would be closely followed by the advance of the Jinds themselves. The Mardots might tire out in their effort to destroy the phantom Jinds, and be easy targets for the true flesh and blood. Baeoinfaermn agreed to the idea, and the two met with their forces to announce their plan.
     The star Satrophe was high overhead as the Jinds knelt down to whisper their incantations. As they knelt there, their spectral selves leapt up, and began their march across the Plains. In doing so, much of their energy was spent, and their actual bodies lost some of their color and substantiality. As a result the Jinds themselves resembled their spectral selves. The Mardots, watching from the other side of the field, thought they saw the Jinds armies doubling, but could not distinguish and know that the Jinds had merely been joined by twin phantoms.
     The Mardots quickly assembled their forces in a sweeping semicircle among the rock outcroppings into which the Jinds would have to march. As the phantom Jinds came into reach the Mardots proceeded to aggressively combat them. At first they believed that they were winning; the Jinds were being mowed asunder rather easily, so they did not take notice to the fact that the fallen Jinds bodies were gradually fading from view. The fallen spectres were being recalled into the true Jinds' bodies to rebuild their own strength.
     Ragnar watched closely to perceive the right moment to lead the second assault with the true Jinds. As he watched he could see that some of the Mardots were taking notice of the disappearing Jinds bodies. Now was the time. Quite a number of the Jinds had already recalled their spectral selves, so with a shout the army took across the field. The Mardots, now fully aware of the trick that had been played upon them, began a retreat from the field, tired and terrified. The Jinds swooped down upon them swiftly, spearing and slashing them as they ran. A great slaughter followed. In a matter of only minutes, the Mardots army was virtually destroyed in the left field, and Baeoinfaermn and Ragnar returned to the Huradd Butte in triumph. The few surviving members of the Mardots left flank set about building their cairns side by side with a number of the Jinds.
     Meanwhile, the fighting on the right side of the Plains had gotten underway.
     The Plains Of Galbradith, which lie in the lands of the Chlandoins, is a rectangular valley surrounded by tall mountains. When one stands in the center of the Plains facing toward the Prime Axis of the universe (the Tabur-raad), you face the Gandor Mountains, a somewhat gently sloping range blocks from your sight the lands of the Chokta, which border the Chlandoins. The right side of the Gandor Mountains slopes rather steeply downward to form a natural ravine called the Pass Of Yoenirh between it and the drastically inclined face of the chalk moun-tain called the Huradd Butte. The Huradd Butte continues the wall formed by the Gandor Mountains on the one side of the Plains. Part way along the face of the Butte a deep ravine cuts through the Butte, and snakes its way down into the Plains, its depth being such that no one has ever been able to measure it, its length being such that it literally divides the Plains into two sections with a gaping crack five or six paces across. At the extreme right side of the Huradd Butte it dips slightly in elevation, and curls around at an angle to define half of the right side wall of the Plains. The Butte's steep sloping side at this point stands alongside the equally steep slope of the Harkdudarti Heights. In between these two slopes lies the Pass Of Calin, a channel cut long ago by the Chlandoins so that they would have ingress to the Plains without having to make the arduous journey around the far side of the Huradd Butte. The Harkdudarti Heights sweeps around the corner of the Plains, and stretches the length of the Plains Of Galbradith. This back wall of the Plains runs roughly parallel to the Gandor Mountains. At the far left side of the rectangle formed by these mountain ranges, the Plains Of Galbradith opens out into the Raking Sea of osmium gasses. It was on the shores of this sea that the Chlandoins at one time maintained a shipping port, but that was before the battle in which Maelnru and Geoffi-tur fell, before the Plains Of Galbradith became a sea of dust.
     The Mardots had constructed a trench from the point where the deep ravine ended in its snaking path across the Plains to the base of the Harkdudarti Heights. In the trench, the right side battalions would wait for the Jinds. This had been constructed early in the day; the Mardots assuming that with it they could divide the Jinds, and have the advantage. Because of the deep ravine, it would be necessary for the Jinds of their right flank to make an arc around the ravine if they wished to reinforce the others of the left flank. As the day progressed, and disaster appeared imminent on the left, Greunweiln still believed that if the trench could be held, the Jinds might be defeated. The Mardots had used this form of trench warfare in their war against the Hapt in the fourth age, and by it had been victorious, so it might work now.
     The situation here was different than that with the Hapt. The Hapt had not had the artillery which the Jinds harried them with here. All through the morning the Jinds artillery had poured volley after volley into the entrenchment, breaching great holes here and there. This they continued without making an advance with the footsoldiers. The Mardots' own artillery did not have the range of that of the Jinds, and were quite useless. Unless the Jinds marched upon them, the Mardots right flank was paralyzed. Greunweiln waited.
     Finally the Jinds made their move. Under the leadership of Juye they took to the field toward the entrenched Mardots. Dodging the shot that now poured into them from the Mardots' artillery they advanced. They charged the breastworks where spear met spear, and battle-axes waved. The Mardots held their ground firmly, and repulsed the first charge.

     A second charge was made, and then a third. Greunweiln was elated. Finally his forces were taking a toll on the Jinds. By holding the trench they would indeed decimate the right flank, and then take on the Jinds' left flank, who would surely also be defeated. Greunweiln ordered the artillery to increase its momentum, which now had perfect target range on the Jinds in the field.
     When all seemed to be going well with the Mardots, one of their units misunderstood an order from their field general, and pulled out of the trench to meet the Jinds hand to hand in the field.
     "What are they doing?" cried out Grenweiln to his warlords who watched with him from the Harkdudarti Heights.
     It was a costly mistake. The Jinds overpowered them and broke through the Mardots lines. They began a push up the length of the trench wreaking death on the units there. In a short while the trench was a mass of carnage comprised mostly of Mardots bodies. The blood of the fallen warriors gushed down the trench and cascaded into the depths of the ravine.
     Now the Mardots truly appeared to be on the verge of defeat. The Jinds had only to push on to the left field to where the surviving and exhausted Mardots were building their cairns to make the defeat on the field final. Then the Jinds artillery would move closer to that of the Mardots on the Heights, and their greater numbers would no doubt put an end to the Mardots there. As Juye and his Jindsmen swept forward Tzimar made a final effort to bring them to a halt.
     In conjuration, Tzimar called forth his spirits by means of his magic. In full view of the Jinds' advancing army he strode out into the field like a whirlwind, the dust of the field swirling around him to form a rising column. The Jinds were momentarily taken aback by the spectacle, and halted their advance as they neared him. There he stood, motionless except for the waving of his arms in spellweaving. When they regained their senses the Jinds found that they could not advance past the Mardots wizard. He had effectively created a force field which kept them at bay. The Jinds felt a heat beginning to spread upon them from the chanting figure of Tzimar. It grew hotter and hotter with each passing moment. It singed the hair upon their heads. And a horror passed through the Jinds as their armour and weapons took on the growing heat. Tzimar intended to burn them where they stood.
     The unearthly fire that was being conjured by Tzimar was unbearable. The Jinds were starting to retreat when through their ranks Juye, The Wrath Beyond Regret, in the form of a great feline beast charged forward. Straight into the magic circle of Tzimar he charged. As he passed through the edges of the force field he seemed to burst into flames of bluish color, but he did not falter. The penetration caught Tzimar off guard. His concentration was broken. He looked up just as The Wrath Beyond Regret charged down upon him. A shriek of startled terror pierced the air as Juye pounced on Tzimar. In the shattering of the spell, the forces that Tzimar had unleashed collapsed inward upon himself, and he burst into the very flames he was spreading. From the moment Juye had passed through the barrier, all that anyone could see was a great column of fire leaping upward. In the blinking of an eye the flames consumed their own and Juye was seen to be standing alone on the field.
     Greunweiln, in the anguish of watching his army and loyal wizard destroyed, was also defeated. On the Heights Of Harkdudarti, in the light shining bright from the star Satrophe, he boarded his flagship, and retreated to Ęberaun.
     From realm to realm, tales would soon spread of the Mardots' defeat on the Plains Of Galbradith. And they would speak of the anguished drone of the spires of wicked Ęberaun in their lament when Greunweiln arrived home. And also they would tell of the smouldering fire that would burn in the heart of the ruined lord, a fire that would eventually drain from Ęberaun all of her recent glory, returning her to an obsidian nightmare.