Battle of Troyes-le-Mont

In Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series, the Battle of Troyes-le-Mont is the climactic event in the conflict between Terre d'Ange and the Skaldic forces of Waldemar Selig.

The city of Troyes-le-Mont in Namarre was prepared for a siege, so that when the Skaldi pouring out of Camlach forced the D'Angeline armies to retreat, they had someplace to safely fall back to. Queen Ysandre de la Courcel joins her troops there, determined to stand or die with her country and not seek safety elsewhere. Waldemar Selig has the cunning to instruct his troops to build siege towers to assault the city walls; Drustan mab Necthana and his Alban strike teams set fire to the siege towers, then draw the pursuing Skaldi lines into ravines and narrow paths, where they are ambushed by the D'Angelines and Dalriadans, led by Ghislain de Somerville.

Phèdre comes up with a plan to trap the Skaldi between the walls of the city and an advancing army. The forces of House Somerville, House Trevalion, and the Albans would not be enough, however; Phèdre wants to persuade Isidore d'Aiglemort to turn against Selig and back to his own country. Ghislain de Somerville takes Phèdre under a banner of truce to parlay with Isidore. She brings to his attention the fact that he will be a dead man no matter what, but offers him the choosing of the manner of his death, proposing that he regain his honor and die a hero by fighting for Terre d'Ange. What eventually persuades him is the revelation that Melisande was the one to betray him to Selig; Isidore agrees to the plan not to help Ysandre, but to spite Melisande.

Knowing this plan will work most effectively and give the D'Angelines the greatest advantage if those inside the city know of it beforehand, Phèdre decides to make a suicidal attempt to sneak through the Skaldi lines and warn those on the battlements not to fire on Isidore's troops. She slips out of the Alban-D'Angeline camp in the dead of night, and manages to gain the wall and shout a message to be delivered to Ysandre before the Skaldi drag her down.

When Selig learns what she has done, he begins to skin her alive as a message to Ysandre; he is interrupted almost immediately by Joscelin, who followed Phèdre from the camp, and who challenges Selig to the "holmgang". When Selig refuses, Joscelin goes into the position of "terminus", making it look as though he is going to kill both himself and Phèdre, but then kills her captor instead and in the following confusion, hauls her towards the fortress.

With the warning Phèdre provided, the D'Angelines inside the city are able to launch a well-timed attack on the Skaldi. Some of their forces come out the main gate, while others pour "feu d'Hellas", liquid pitch ignited and burning, to provide cover. Barquiel L'Envers himself rides through the Skaldi camp to get Phèdre behind the walls; Ysandre immediately brings her an Eisandine healer. Phèdre informs Ysandre that an army of seven thousand will attack at daybreak, half Albans and half Isidore d'Aiglemort's men, and manages to convince the Queen of Isidore's sincerity in this venture.

As the battle progresses, Ghislain's L'Agnacite archers provide cover for the Camaeline foot soldiers. The undisciplined Skaldi fall upon them and die in wave after wave, but retain the advantage of superior numbers. The Albans strike, their cavalry on the right flank, the war chariots from the left, with foot soldiers behind both. The advancing Camaeline infantry breaks to let the Camaeline cavalry through, with Isidore at the head of the charge. This move terrifies many of the Skaldi, who break ranks and fall back, but Selig charges forward to meet Isidore. Isidore's horse goes down, but he gets back up and takes Selig's horse down with a Skaldic axe; during the following fight, Isidore takes seventeen wounds, but his sword finds Selig's heart. After Selig's death, the Skaldi fall apart entirely, and Terre d'Ange wins the battle.

A small party of Skaldi do make it within the fortress, slipping in as the garrison troops out. Among the D'Angelines fighting them within the walls is Joscelin's brother, Luc Verreuil, whom he rushes to join.