Chapter 26: Seeing the Elephant II

Judy stood next to Tuck, who was looking over the ground they'd be fighting on by noon the next day.

"Picking the right ground used to be half the battle," Tuck told her. "Robert E. Lee's biggest mistake of the Civil War was not pressing ahead at Gettysburg and securing the high ground. If he'd have done that, like as not everyone would still be using 'y'all' in every sentence. His second big mistake was actually fighting the battle in ground that favored the other side, instead of counter-marching towards Washington, DC. Again, the war could have turned out very differently if he'd pulled Meade away from good ground and out onto ground better suited to Lee's needs."

Judy nodded. "Speaking of ground, where do you want me?"

"Look me in the eye and tell me your people are as well suited for seeking out the God-King's men to take prisoners as the Ruthani are?"

Judy could only sigh. "We still have a lot of work to do. We try to train people -- but it's hard to teach 'watch carefully.'"

"It is. I've had a little more luck with the Hostigi regulars, but not much. Ruthani can regularly get into the camp; even some of the Mexicotal recruits are good at it."

Tuck waved behind them. There, the Mexicotal, all of them, were either having their face paint freshened, or done up. Judy doubted if any of them were going to go into battle with plain faces.

"Even the ones good at sneaking, though," Tuck went on, not aware of what Judy had been thinking, "can't do much better at finding other sneakers."

"You're good at it."

"When I was in college, I thought briefly I might have a career as a stage magician. I didn't. But I learned a lot about misdirection. The army honed that even further. Nothing concentrates the mind better than people shooting at you if they see you."

He looked out over the ground again and then sighed. "Some day, one of the God-King's officers is going to notice that whoever commands the Hostigi forces likes raids and ambushes. Then it could get exciting."

He looked at her and changed to English. "One of the things I'm hoping to get from this battle is practice moving an entire army around by the numbers."

"I've never met anyone who learned as fast as you," Judy told him.

"You're not shabby. By the way, I didn't say this before, but welcome to husband-high. Happy fourteenth."

Judy giggled. "Gamelin forgot, I think."

Tuck shook his head. "Gamelin knows he has to wait. Your birthday doesn't change how he feels about you, how you feel about him, or what the right thing the two of you should do." He waved towards the south.

"I told Tanda Havra something, now I'm going to tell you. Don't go rushing things."

"You told her what?"

"That I was going to give her a wedding present: I'm going to end this war this year, before the winter solstice. Now I'm telling you the same thing. I don't have much else to give, but I'm giving you and Gamelin the same present. War's over by winter."

"How can that possibly be?" Judy asked. "We're what, a thousand miles from the God-King's heartland? We'd be lucky to march that far that fast... even without opposition."

"That's because you are thinking I'm going to fight fair. I have no intention of fighting fair. Starting tomorrow, all the stops are pulled, Judy. I'm going to take war to the God-King's men like they've never seen or imagined war."

"I still don't see how that's going to help. It's a long way to where the bastard lives. He's not going to come and meet us."

"No, that's true. I am, though, allied with High King Kalvan, who if he doesn't expect to end the war this year, he expects to wrap it up pretty quickly. He has a wife at risk, and children back home... no, he's going to be ruthless. He offered the Zarthani and the God-King peace. The High King's enemies just used the time to plot against him. I seriously doubt if they're going to get another chance."

Judy realized that the subject had changed. "Okay, my people can't run around the desert like the Ruthani and either scout or capture prisoners. What do you want us to do?"

"First, targets," he told her. He reached into his pack and pulled out his binoculars. He pointed along the ridge, about fifty yards to an old landslide that had tumbled rocks down the ridge.

"You will go there, you and Hestius. Tomorrow, make notes of the battlefield. Look for the God-King's officers. If you see one go down, make a note of it. Keep your head down as much as you can, once the shooting starts.

"Hestius will write the notes and keep the maps you make. Do you understand?"

"I don't get any say in this?"

"No. The only one of your people who can read and write, besides you, is Hestius. Something to think about for the future.

"Tomorrow night, the God-King's army will be retreating. About six miles south of here is a wash, about fifty or sixty feet deep, about a quarter of a mile wide which makes it a significant military obstacle. The enemy will retreat to the other side. Your people, based on your notes, will go out into the battlefield to scout, assisted by the Ruthani. I want anything written you can find. There are exactly two people with the column who can read Mexicotal: Vertax and his daughter. She, like the rest of your people, will be on the backside of the ridge, out of harm's way while the battle is in progress. But still relatively close to you. Her father will be on the back side of the ridge near me, getting a lesson in mortar operations."

Tuck met Judy's eyes. "Neither of them will be happy to be kept out of the battle, but, for the time being, they are too important to risk."

"Yes, sir," Judy said, frustrated. Would she ever get to truly command? Or would there always be someone like Tuck or Gamelin, hovering over her shoulder?

"We'll need everyone looking over the battlefield tomorrow, once the shooting stops. It has to be quick. As soon as the battle is over, we're going to start south."

"South?" Judy asked. "You're going to attack them?"

"Yes, but carefully. It's going to be bright, first thing in the morning, just before sunup. The moon will be up, and we're going to be coming out of the sun. This ridge runs down to that wash and then peters out. Tanda Havra says we can easily cross it, four or five miles from where the God-King's soldiers will be forted up. We'll march all night and then, just before dawn, we'll attack their camp."

Judy nodded. Whatever Tuck was planning, it was bound to be devastating. As for herself, she'd be watching what was going on. Twice, she'd seen men killed not far from her, because they weren't careful, sticking their heads up during a battle. Maybe Tuck wasn't hovering as much as she thought.

She turned and headed to give Hestius and Tazi the news. Judy was quite certain Tazi wasn't going to be as enthusiastic about their orders as Hestius. Judy stopped, then, after having taken barely two steps.

Tuck was going to let her watch a battle. Moreover, he wanted her to take notes. He wasn't just expecting a list of dead officers; he was expecting a report on how things went -- yet another test. Another test was Tazi. Hestius was the only one who could help Judy do what she had to do. Tazi was the logical person to leave in charge of the rest of the recruits. Yet, that was going to separate her and Hestius, and Judy was sure that wasn't going to make Tazi happy. It would be her job as commander to deal with it.

She shook her head as she started moving again. Tuck was eerie, she thought. Everything he did had a purpose, and frequently two or three purposes. He thought at a level well beyond what she was capable of. It seemed effortless. Judy already had some idea of how hard it was to control three dozen people. Controlling thousands of people? Most of whom spoke another language? Awesome!

Gamelin tried not to be nervous. He'd seen Judy when they'd broken camp very early, before dawn. Now he and his men were preparing their position. He smiled to himself, remembering Tuck wanting copies of his small shovel made. Maybe they were being made in Outpost now, but it wasn't any use here. It didn't stop Gamelin from wishing he had them.

Men were digging carefully with their bayonets and scooping out dirt with their hands. It was hot work, but once the bullets started to fly, all knew how important it was going to be to have a place where you could put your head down and ride out the bullet storm.

Captain Andromoth had been by a bit earlier and grunted in approval of what they were doing. "I was worried about the God-King's artillery," Captain Andromoth said. "It's still possible we might face it. It'll be important for everyone to stay down if they do come up and fire."

"I understand, sir. We've seen enough artillery fire to know how to deal with it," Gamelin had replied.

"Well, in order for their artillery to get here, first it has to get past Tanda Havra and her Ruthani. Lord Tuck tasked them to kill the artillery horses."

"Just the horses?" Gamelin said, a little surprised.

"Yes. Clever, really. Guns without horses aren't going to be much use to them. I do think I'd rather be part of their cavalry charge against our guns, than to be a horse in their artillery train. I suspect it's not going to be a good day to be one of the God-King's artillerymen, either."

Gamelin looked south. The dust column from the God-King's vanguard was about four miles away now. A palm-width, if they'd have been cavalry of the High King, not much more than that if they'd been the High King's Mounted Infantry. Lord Tuck, though, was right. They weren't marching fast and likely wouldn't come up to the Hostigi positions until High Sun.

Gamelin sniffed. The job of a junior officer was to learn lessons about battle. This lesson was quite clear: if you're going to march against invaders, you don't take your time. You hurry; you don't give them time to prepare against you.

When the God-King's soldiers were two miles out, everyone was down and ready, their fireseed checked.

Gamelin was the only one of his company with his head up as the God-King's soldiers approached. Vosper had made it clear what would happen if he saw any other heads appear. The idea, Vosper had said with obvious undertones of threat, was to surprise the God-King's vanguard.

At a mile, Gamelin could see the cavalry that made up the vanguard clearly. They were moving forward at a slow walk, trying not to get too far in advance of the foot soldiers, now another four miles behind.

"There are no scouts," Gamelin said softly, making a note to himself. "And there needs to be closer contact between the vanguard and the main body. Not too close, but this is too far..."

The field guns fired their balls. The sound checked the advance of their enemies for a moment. Maybe six or seven men were down, it was obviously a pinprick.

"Up!" Gamelin called as the echoes died away. To his left, in the gap, the call went up from sergeants all along the line. "Ready!"

He counted to himself, watching the God-King's vanguard steady, then start forward. "Never stop in an ambush," he muttered to himself.

His eyes turned to the guns, and their officer raised a sword. "Aim!" Gamelin called.

The thunder of the cannon was followed by the thunder from six hundred rifles. The vanguard was now about four hundred yards away; the combined shock of case shot, even from just a few guns, combined with the rifles shattered the formation.

A few heartbeats later, his men were firing individually, while the attack had all but stopped. The guns fired again, now just a hundred yards from the much slowed cavalry. Large chunks of the survivors went down, and then the last rifle volley came, emptying half the saddles that still had men in them.

All along the line, Andromoth's and Gamelin's men were firing, a steady racket. There was the least bit of wind, and it was favorable, blowing the fireseed smoke behind them.

For the first time, Gamelin saw puffs of smoke from the God-King's men. He blinked in surprise! They should have fired as soon as they came under fire! Now most of them were dead!

The crackle of rifle fire rose and the few survivors melted away. Only a dozen or so survived, flogging their horses, beating a frantic retreat.

The call to cease firing came and the last shooting stopped. "Report, Vosper!" Gamelin called.

It took but a heartbeat. "No dead, no wounded! The ammunition party is passing out fireseed, shot and patches. Galzar Wolf's Head! What a battle!"

Gamelin looked at the carnage on the field in front of him. "I should be used to this," he thought, "I've seen it before. Yet, once again, I have this thing growing in my head. There are things I won't let myself be commanded to do. To waste myself and my men as these were."

There was a clatter of rocks and Captain Andromoth appeared. "Report, Lieutenant."

"No deaths, no wounds. Replenishment underway."

"Very good!" Captain Andromoth waved at the carnage they helped create. "Very good indeed! I had one man shot in the hand!"

"They didn't return our fire until it was too late," Gamelin reminded him.

Captain Andromoth shrugged. "I expect they will next time."

He returned to his own men and in a few moments, Gamelin could see Andromoth's message going out to Lord Tuck. As expected, though, there was no reply.

Gamelin turned his attention to the advancing soldiers. He couldn't see that they had slowed at all. The infantry continued on, steadily. The remaining cavalry was behind the infantry, trying to keep pace with the slower foot soldiers. Even as Gamelin watched, the cavalry broke out of line and started moving forward faster, towards them.

The main body was, Gamelin thought, now three miles distant. It would take the more than a palm-width before they would be up. The cavalry, though, would be up in finger-width.

Vosper saluted. "Lord Gamelin, replenishment is complete. We've even passed out extra water. The men are thirsty."

"And will be thirstier," Gamelin told him. "Have them go easy on their water."

Vosper nodded, turned and went along the lines, passing the word.

A messenger came this time from Captain Andromoth. "Expect action in fat finger's width, Lieutenant."

"Tell the captain, we're ready. The plan remains the same?"

"The plan remains the same," the messenger said, then was off again, back to Captain Andromoth.

Gamelin was astounded. The advancing cavalry was still walking when the first balls flew into them. This time, their target was much more densely packed; the balls killed a lot more men.

Gamelin contemplated the scene in front of him. The God-King's cavalry were four hundred yards distant. Long rifle shot, but they were densely packed. He could fire now, and get an extra volley or two in, before the cavalry could close. That could, he thought make all the difference in the world...

For an instant he thought about what Lord Tuck would say if someone changed his plan. Gamelin grimaced. He'd explain it later. "Prepare to fire!" he called. Vosper cast him a hard look, even as he passed the command. "Ready! Aim! Fire!"

The volley was a little ragged, since no one had been expecting the command to fire to be given so soon. Still, a lot of saddles were suddenly empty ahead of them. A moment later, Andromoth decided Gamelin had the right idea, and his much larger company fired, then the first case shot flew.

The cavalry fired back this time, but Gamelin kept his head down. Not cowardice, he thought, but his job. He would pop up and peek every few heartbeats. It wasn't as though he was cowering in his hole.

He readied his first pistol, but it was pointless; none of the God-King's cavalry was headed for them. In fact, when the second blast of case shot went, they were already in headlong flight.

More of the cavalry were trying to aim their shots, but in order to do that, they had to all but stop. Men who all but stopped tended to be shot to rags in an eye blink. The retreat was a stampede of frightened men and horses.

Gamelin was just congratulating himself on another battle won, when there was a solid slam of a rifle volley from the ridge opposite. He gulped, hoping Lady Judy was someplace safe.

He actually stood to look, even though Vosper was telling him to get down.

Ahead of them, almost a mile and a half away, the God-King's infantry was milling around. A lot of men were down... then another slam of a volley and more of the infantry died.

Gamelin could see officers frantically trying to get their men turned around to face the threat from their flank. Mortar shells cut a diagonal line across the column, further adding to the confusion. There were single shots from Lord Tuck's lines and Gamelin could see enemy officers die. The Mexicotal recruits had been trained to fire on command. The Hostigi among them, sergeants, corporals and the better privates, were sniping at the God-King's officers.

A third volley racketed over the valley, this time directed further back in the God-King's lines. A fourth volley.

Gamelin was stunned, when after the fourth volley, he could see the men of Xipototec steadily move back over the hill. As if on command, the last of them vanished. Two heartbeats later the entire line of the God-King's infantry vanished in a cloud of fireseed smoke.

Gamelin could only blink. They had fired at bare rock! All of them!

As he watched, there was a scream, and the remnants of eighteen thousand soldiers of the God-King started to charge the hill.

Like an oiled machine, the lines of recruits appeared, marching forward.

Gamelin measured the distance with his eye. The attacking infantry were about fifty yards from the base of the hill. Six hundred feet up the hill. Running uphill on a blazing hot day like this was turning out to be? Two volleys crashed at once, instead of one at a time. Then a third and fourth volley, with a longer gap between them.

The mortars were firing a steady stream of rounds into the moving mass of infantry, doing a good job of keeping on target. There was a continuous rattle of rifle fire from the Hostigi elements, and there was more firing further south that Gamelin couldn't see. Probably, he thought, Lady Tanda practicing killing horses from in front.

The God-King's men paused, trying to reload. A bad thing, Gamelin judged. Two more volleys hit them, before they lifted their rifles.

It had to have been a signal, almost all of the Mexicotal recruits flopped on the ground, as if in the grip of the worst bowel-watering disease known! Again, a single volley from the God-King's men. Again, their officers, now much reduced in number, urged them forward.

The Mexicotal were back on their feet, and the volleys resumed. The second stalled the attack, and some of the God-King's infantry began to head back downhill. A few heartbeats later, another volley put the rest into flight.

The mortars fired just two more salvos; the riflemen of Xipototec added two more volleys.

Gamelin looked at Vosper, who was sitting on a rock, staring, pretty much as surprised as Gamelin. Vosper looked up at Gamelin. "They not only didn't run, they held steady."

He nodded. Vosper stood then. "Lieutenant, we have one dead, two lightly wounded."

Gamelin pointed at a reliable trooper and the man went to pass on the message to Captain Andromoth.

The God-King's men were running now, not stopping when they reached the bottom of the hill. They were heading south. Seven or eight thousand, someone said. Gamelin supposed so. But there was no denying that most of the God-King's soldiers lay dead on the road and on the lower slopes of the hill.

From near where Lord Tuck was supposed to be, a group of people appeared at the top of the ridge and started down. Lady Judy, Gamelin thought. Even as he thought it, he could see her, towering over the others.

Not only her people were moving downhill, but so were chunks of Hostigi regulars from the flanks. Gamelin read a message from Lord Tuck to Andromoth, detaching Gamelin and his men to go forward to police the battlefield.

Captain Andromoth appeared moments later. "Did you see the message?"

Gamelin nodded. Captain Andromoth grinned. "And here you sit! Advance, Lieutenant!"

It was a joke, sort of. You weren't supposed to read messages sent to someone else, even if they were about you. Gamelin called to Vosper and his men headed down the hill.

"Prisoners?" Gamelin asked, his voice steady. That hadn't been in the message.

Captain Andromoth shrugged. "Respect Oath to Galzar. Otherwise... give them grace."

Otherwise kill them, whether they would live or not. "Yes, sir." Once Gamelin might have objected. Now he'd heard too many stories about sacrifices to the God-King. He'd seen the pyramid in Xipototec, even if it hadn't been as robust as it once had been and shortly thereafter was gone. The energy and effort of the people tearing it down with just their fingers had been clear enough.

They hadn't been very high up the hill. Gamelin gave a short speech telling his men what they were to do. There wasn't the usual humor they took with them to a task. Gamelin went on to warn them that not all of the men below were dead, and might not want to be sacrificed for the God-King.

One of his men ended up with a bullet burn along his ribs; a lot of the God-King's soldiers, not already dead, died.

He met Lady Judy near a heap of plumed officers. Her people were swarming over the corpses, occasionally bringing something to her. She would, in turn, hand what had been found to Vertax or his daughter.

Gamelin bowed. "You are well, Lady Judy?"

She smiled at him. "I'm well, Lieutenant Gamelin."

At first he was a little miffed, then realized that a hundred people were within earshot. "How did Lord Tuck fare?"

"About seventy-five casualties all told. Ten of them Hostigi, the rest from Xipototec."

"A great victory!" Zokala, Vertax's daughter said, looking up from a piece of paper. She waved it towards her father, and he came and looked at it. Vertax and Lady Judy moved off and spoke in hushed whispers.

Lady Judy fixed her gaze on Gamelin; he wasn't certain why he was sure this wasn't a good thing.

"Lieutenant, do you have a signaler?"

"Yes, Lady Judy."

"I need him, please."

Gamelin passed the word and Lady Judy looked at the young man with the mirror. "You will learn something important here in a heartbeat. I say to you, this is Tuck's decision, do you hear? If you talk about it ahead of him, you could wreck everything."

Gamelin resisted an urge to explode in anger; sure the comment was really directed at him. "I am an officer of the High King. I do not tell the secrets of the High King."

She wrote something down and handed it to the signaler. The man read it and then started flashing his signal mirror.

Vosper appeared, read a few words of the signal and turned to Gamelin. "Say nothing," Gamelin told him.

The veteran sergeant shrugged. "As you say, Lord Gamelin. However, a third of Hostigos soldiers with the First Southern Rifles are on the hills over there. Maybe a dozen of them can read signals. It will be common knowledge before morning."

"But not from us," Gamelin told him.

Vosper bobbed his head. "Yes, Lord Gamelin!"

The signal flashes came back almost at once.

"We're finished here," Judy told her people. "Time to head south."

Captain Andromoth was there as well. "Lieutenant Gamelin, get your men marching through the eastern gap, and then south along the back side of the ridge. Try to catch up to Lord Tuck by midnight. I will be following shortly, as soon as I get the field guns headed south along the road."

"Yes, sir." Gamelin replied.

Andromoth shook his head. "I'm getting very tired of clearing roads by moving bodies."

Gamelin decided to speak up. "Captain, from my perch on the hill, I could see for the next few miles. There aren't very many gullies ahead. You could move off to the west with the guns. The ground looks good."

Vosper chimed in. "Captain, there are a few rough spots, but if you just have to clear the road in just those places, it'll be much faster."

Captain Andromoth looked pleased. "My men are even more tired of moving piles of dead Mexicotal soldiers than I am."

"The God-King's soldiers," Vertax said from a few feet away.

Captain Andromoth saluted the former officer of the God-King. "Yes! The God-King's soldiers! Come, we all have things to do!"

"General Denethon," one of his sergeants said, "they're starting now."

Denethon heaved himself to his feet and moved a couple of hundred feet away from where the Captain-General was standing, looking out over the battlefield. He stayed well away, off to one side.

Captain-General Oaxhan was a bigger fool than Denethon thought, when he came over anyway.

"I am surprised you could find the courage to stir yourself from your tent, General," Oaxhan pontificated.

The Mexicotal high priest had trailed along behind Oaxhan, but none of the others moved to follow along.

"Even I get up before High Sun, Captain-General. I'm sure the High King's soldiers appreciate the rest you gave them this morning. They finished with their preparations overnight and were ready when the sun came up."

Oaxhan, as usual, ignored him. "Brigadier Xorca will lead half of his division against the hill. Today you will see how well the God-King's soldiers fight!"

That had to be about the stupidest thing Denethon had ever heard an officer utter. He was a dead man; he knew it. What did it matter any more? Sure, he had ambition and a woman he loved. But he also had pride. Most important of all, he had a brain to think with and eyes to see with.

"Captain-General, are you saying that until now the God-King's men haven't fought well?"

That stung like he knew it would. Oaxhan purpled with rage. Denethon waved at the half division forming up about a mile in front of them, three miles from the Hostigi positions. "Does Brigadier Xorca have a competent second in command?"

"Of course! He marches at his brigadier's side!"

Denethon openly laughed. "Oh, wonderful! Lose two men qualified to command a division in a single morning's fight, against entrenched Hostigi skirmishers. Oh wait! Not a morning's fight because you've wasted half the damned day lining them up!"

The Captain-General's rage was a terrible thing to behold. Abruptly the Captain-General turned and stalked away from Denethon.

The priest, though, stayed behind. He studied the battlefield, and then turned to Denethon, curious. "I am not a soldier. I know little of war. How is it that you think the God-King's men will be defeated? They outnumber the Hostigi five times over!"

"Your men are going to march towards the Hostigi over bare, open ground. They can't hide, there's nothing they are going to be able to do except fire their rifles -- and they will be able to do that only once or twice. And the Hostigi have prepared firing positions. They will duck down out of harm's way except when they rise to shoot. Those are some of the High King's finest skirmishers -- every last man can shoot well. One man in a thousand of the God-King's soldiers will be lucky and hit someone. Odds are it will be an accident. Half of the High King's soldiers will hit what they aim at. And it won't be an accident.

"Every rifle volley the Hostigi fire, a tenth of your soldiers will die. The Hostigi will start shooting at long rifle shot. By the time your men close with them they will have had time to fire ten times or so, each. Eleven and twelve times for some of the swifter men. If Brigadier Xorca presses the attack, this evening you will have four dozen men left from that half division. The Hostigi will have fewer casualties than that."

"Everything seems to take much longer than I would have expected," Gorton told him.

"Arrogance, priest. Arrogance. The Captain-General doesn't feel rushed and his officers see that and they don't rush. All the way down to the rank and file soldiers. Time, priest, time is something as valuable as extra divisions to a general. And like divisions thrown away in the maw of battle, once lost, time can never be regained."

Two batteries of field guns appeared, galloping to support Brigadier Xorca's men. Denethon sniffed in derision.

"What?" the priest asked.

"The Hostigi guns will be firing downhill, the elevation allows their guns to shoot further. Firing uphill, the God-King's gun will have to get closer than they might otherwise have to. Harmakros' artillery commander is Count Alkides, the best artillery commander in all of the land. Alkides' men are fast and efficient. They will fire three times to the God-King's soldiers twice. They will hit their targets twice or more as often."

"Still, the guns would have an effect..." the priest said, his voice for the first time showing strain.

"Of course. The problem is, firing at the Hostigi guns isn't going to help Brigadier Xorca get up that hill. And if the God-King's artillery doesn't fire on Alkides' guns, in a palm's-width they will just be twisted rubble."