Chapter 27B

Gamelin watched as his men finished loading the last of the wagons. The stench of the battlefield made it very difficult for all of them, but he'd known the importance of being with his men until their duty was complete. The last of the wagons creaked into motion and they finally left the slaughter behind.

He could see Lady Judy and her people a little ways to the north, working over the pile of corpses that they'd killed first, the God-King's cavalry. Vosper saw his gaze and smiled. "Lord Tuck is a canny man."

"I don't understand," Gamelin told him. "We searched them already."

"Lord Tuck thinks that the man who commanded the God-King's soldiers here was a cavalry officer. He thinks the man died there, as well as their van commander. Lord Tuck thinks it would be nice to see if there are any interesting messages with him. We searched rather fast the other day, Lieutenant."

"Sometimes," Gamelin said glumly, "I feel like a fool."

The sergeant shook his head. "Lieutenant, you're a young officer. Now, more experienced than most, which isn't the same thing as experienced. In truth, I've never served with an officer as good as Lord Tuck. I think the High King is better, but I honestly don't know. I certainly know that Lord Tuck has an uncanny way of shaping events so they go his way."

"A sorcerer?"

Vosper made a rude noise and Gamelin looked abashed. "No more than Lady Judy!" the sergeant told him a heartbeat later.

That was something that didn't bear thinking about. Gamelin was sure he knew Judy's mind. If both of them were sorcerers, then everything was a lie. He couldn't accept that.

His sergeant waved at the setting sun. "It'll be dark soon. We should get into position."

That was easy enough. He gave the orders and they headed for the gap between the hills. What a clever idea! He thought as they approached. It would be the work of perhaps two palm-widths to switch the artillery to the other gap. He'd made sure the captured guns were loaded and ready. The only advice he'd had was from a sergeant who usually commanded one of the Hostigi field guns and now commanded the battery of captured cannon.

"Case shot, sir," the sergeant had told Gamelin. "Ball is nice for reaching a lot further, but at long range balls just scare people. We need to kill them, sir. Balls just kill one or two. When they get close, Lieutenant, case shot! Ah! Case shot! We will do more than scare them and we will kill more than one or two!"

In spite of his nervousness, Gamelin fell asleep a little before midnight. Vosper woke him a few hours later.

"Lord Tuck and the others are perhaps a palm-width away."

Gamelin got up, rubbing his eyes. He took a quick swig from a wineskin, rinsed his mouth and spat it out.

Lord Tuck appeared out of the dark at Gamelin's elbow and grinned at him. "I see the guns are in position!"

"Yes, Lord Tuck!" Gamelin tried to pretend he wasn't startled. That had been a very short palm-width!

"We killed a couple of hundred at the wash. After a bit, they started east like I wanted. Then they turned north like I wanted. We were preparing the first night attack on their camp when all of sudden there were bugles and commands. A few heartbeats later they were all up, vanishing towards the east."

Gamelin recalled the map and shook his head. "There are mountains there."

Lord Tuck smiled. "Yes. The last report I had from Lady Tanda's Ruthani was that they were toiling up a six thousand foot ridge. Vertax says that from there, if they were to head northeast, they would come to some decent passes, then could turn due north, to reach one of the other main towns of the Northern Regime of the God-King. He thinks that word has spread there of our attack and success, and that they are having trouble keeping order."

Gamelin shrugged. "They could also go north and then turn northwest and cut us off from Outpost."

Lord Tuck nodded. "They could. But we have a base close by and they don't. Forty thousand men will eat several wagonloads of food a day. Assuming they can get the wagons over the mountains."

"You think they're gone?" Gamelin had trouble imagining that.

"I think it means they think they've broken contact. We'll let the men sleep tonight. Tomorrow we too will head east. I'm sending some of the captured artillery and all but six mortar tubes back to Xipototec. In Xipototec, there are now three thousand men to man the walls, and they've been exercising the big guns as well. A thousand women are also learning to shoot. Another few moon-quarters and the God-King will need forty or fifty thousand soldiers to take Xipototec."

"What if they send more men from the town to our south?" Gamelin asked.

"If they are having trouble to the east, it means likely they are also having trouble in the south. Troops would be held back, to make sure they had things under control. They would have logistical problems trying to move north."

The council of war was short, and then Lord Tuck and his men collapsed on their blankets. They'd marched forty miles in a day, fighting two big battles and a skirmish. Gamelin could only shake his head in wonder. A soldier could dream of winning one battle like that! Lord Tuck won them again and again, with as little seeming effort as a man pulling on his boots!

He stared for a short while towards where Lady Judy and her people were camped, several hundred yards away. Lord Tuck had done them no real favor today. They'd marched just as far as his men, but his men were camped well away from the stench of the battlefield. He laughed to himself. To think he thought this was favoritism!

Meeting Captain-General Harmakros the second time was anticlimactic for Legios. The other had taken his salute, and then had stared appraisingly at Legios.

"So, now you've seen the elephant."

"Yes, sir."

The Captain-General smiled. "Were you afraid?"

"Yes, sir. At first. But Brigadier Markos knows what he's about. We made short work of the first Mexicotal attack. They didn't come at us yesterday at all."

"Indeed they didn't. They did, however come after the rest of us. As Brigadier Markos, I too know a thing or two."

"It was a great victory, sir!" Legios said stoutly.

"A double victory, Legios. A double victory. We beat them, and more importantly, allowed the High King to get behind them. We no longer face an army, we face a rabble. A dangerous thing, a rabble, but not as dangerous as an army."

"Yes, sir."

"Captain Count Nicomoth has asked that you come to him, young man. How say you?"

"An engineer, Captain-General?" Legios was stunned.

"Yes. You won't get to do any engineering for a while, though... just supervision of troops under someone else's command. Of course, that's going to be your lot no matter where you fetch up. However, if you do well the High King would undertake your education at the University of Hostigos. The fly in that ointment is that every year you spend in school, you owe the High King another year of service."

That was fair and Legios was pleased. Such employment was offered only to the very best officers.

However the Captain-General wasn't finished with choices. "Brigadier Markos, however, suggested you might be better employed in something more active."

Legios swallowed. He was going to be given a choice? He swallowed again. How could he know what was right? He looked at the Captain-General. "Sir, I want to do whatever is best for Hostigos."

"Then I have just the thing for you." Harmakros looked at Legios and smiled. "One of the High King's secrets... not so secret now, since we used mortars to slow the attack in the west."

"Mortars, sir?" Legios asked, running the unfamiliar word around his mind, trying to figure out what it could possibly mean.

"It wouldn't be a secret if every man in the army knew it," the Captain-General said and laughed. "Report to Captain Halkon of the Heavy Weapons Company. They are currently camped a bit north of the western-most hill.

"You are now junior Lieutenant Legios, and you will do whatever Captain Halkon asks of you. He needs a capable second-in-command. You're a little young, but you've seen the elephant. Go, Lieutenant!"

Legios went outside and found that the old sergeant, the one who'd given him the magnificent horse, was waiting for him again, again with the same horse.

"Why, sergeant?" Legios asked.

The veteran smiled. "Our Captain-General is a man with tastes as large as he is. Women and battle, those are the center of his life. Occasionally, Lieutenant, things happen. Once such a thing happened to Harmakros and he became father of a boy he couldn't recognize because the boy's mother was a tavern wench in Hostigos."

Legios had a momentary fear that it was him that the sergeant was talking about. But it wasn't true.

"The boy was a fine strapping lad, brave as any man. He wanted to serve the High King. But he didn't know who his father was, although the reverse wasn't true. Harmakros got the lad enrolled in the officer's school and the boy did well, very well. Top marks. Two days before graduation, his horse stepped in a squirrel hole while they were at the gallop. Both died. And a good bit of Captain-General Harmakros.

"Now, when the Captain-General has to send someone like you into danger atop a horse, he sees to it that you have the best horse around. Now, Lieutenant, you need to forget all of this, accept the gift in the spirit it was given and get yourself to Captain Halkon. He's busy this morning and needs an extra hand."

After listening to the sergeant's story, Legios felt a great desire to walk his horse to his new assignment. Except he had several miles to go and he'd been told to be quick. A gallop would be too much, but the horse covered ground at a trot quite fast.

He pulled up at a cluster of wagons and looked around. A few hundred yards away was a cluster of senior officers. Legios swung down from his horse and was debating what to do when a man with sergeant's stripes beckoned to him. "Sir, what may we do for you?"

"Is this the Heavy Weapons Company? Captain Halkon?"

"Aye, sir. But the captain's busy at the moment. Do you have a message for him?"

"No, I've been assigned to him."

The sergeant grinned then. "Ah, just in time! If I say mortar, Lieutenant, what do you say?"

"I say I was told it was a secret."

"What do you know of the secret?"

"Nothing. I never heard the word before today and the Captain-General didn't explain what he meant."

"Perfect!" The sergeant spun on his heel and whistled loudly.

A man who had been sitting with a group of other soldiers stood up.

Legios paled. That was the largest man he'd ever seen! He was head and shoulders taller than any man in the camp, and as wide as two normal men. His arms were like the thickest limbs of a tree, his legs veritable tree trunks.

"Brother! We have our trainee!"

The big man bent over and picked up some things that Legios couldn't clearly see. The other men trailed the out-sized sergeant as he came towards Legios.

"Sergeant Big Mortar, sir, at your service!" the mountain saluted.

Legios saluted back, not sure what to do.

The sergeant's eyes drifted to Legios' horse. "Cavalry, sir?"

"Sixth Mounted Rifles," Legios informed him, standing proud.

"Ever fire a cannon before?" the big sergeant continued his questioning.

"No, sergeant. I watched it done a whole bunch of times the day before yesterday."

The sergeant clapped Legios on the shoulder, careful not to dismember Legios with the blow. "Outstanding!"

He turned to the others. "Make up the packs. The tube goes to the lieutenant, I'll carry the base plate and Corporal Hollar will carry the bipod. The rest of the team carries rounds for the mortar. Move!"

Hands gripped Legios. Gently, politely, but very firmly he was spun around and he felt a pack being cinched to his back, then abruptly, it was a very heavy pack. He staggered, but recovered, working his shoulders to get it set right. When he finished he was aware the big sergeant had been watching him.

"Ready, Lieutenant?"

"Yes, Sergeant."

"Just follow me, sir."

The sergeant hoisted a pack and slung it one-handed around his shoulders. It seemed to be a large, heavy, odd-shaped piece of metal. "Move out!" the sergeant commanded, and started jogging towards the group of senior officers.

Legios turned and followed him, not knowing at all what was going on and hoping that the sergeant wasn't about to humiliate him. Legios had taken a half dozen steps when he realized that the pack wasn't just heavy, it was really heavy. He focused, watching his step, not wanting to trip. A glance over his shoulder showed a corporal close behind, with what looked like a heavy backpack himself, then three more men following in his footsteps, the first sergeant he'd met bringing up the rear.

The huge sergeant trotted past the group of senior officers, made a square turn and headed for the man who stood in front of the rest.

The sergeant stopped and turned to face the assembled officers and Legios followed suit. The others did as well.

The officer in front of the group, a lean, rather short captain, waved at the sergeant. "This, my brother officers, is the High King's secret weapon."

One of the colonels laughed. "Aye, give me a thousand like him and I'll be in Baytown before winter!"

There was a chorus of laughter from the other officers.

Legios sensed the sergeant lean close, so that his mouth was an inch from Legios' ear. "Watch carefully, sir!"

The man's voice was a soft whisper, his lips scarcely moving.

The sergeant shrugged out of his pack and took off the metal plate and placed it on the ground. While he was doing that, someone was fumbling with straps on Legios' pack. Another man was taking something off the third man's pack. The man from behind Legios appeared, carrying a metal tube about three feet long and big enough around to swallow an arm.

The other man with something in his hands was carrying what looked like a "V" of metal not quite as tall as the tube.

They worked right in front of Legios, and Legios could see well enough. There was a flange on the tube and a piece on the legs slid inside it. The man with the tube leaned down over the metal plate, set on the ground, slid a piece at the bottom of the tube in a flange in the plate on the ground, then turned the tube a half circle, then lowered the metal pins to the ground. Now the tube leaned at an angle, resting solidly on the ground.

"There it is, my brothers! The High King's secret weapon, called a 'mortar.'" The officer Legios assumed was Captain Halkon told his fellow officers.

He paused, and then pointed to Legios. "You, Lieutenant. Are you my new officer?"

"Yes, sir."

"Name, rank, last unit, duties."

"Legios, lieutenant, Sixth Mounted, messenger for Brigadier Markos."

"I understood you also acted as the Brigadier's aide."

"Sir, for one battle. Two, if you count yesterday."

There were guffaws among the assembled officers. "You mean," one of the colonels said, "yesterday wasn't hot enough for you?"

"Sixth Mounted wasn't engaged yesterday," someone else replied. "Two days ago they were. Hot enough and then some!"

"You understand, Lieutenant," Captain Halkon spoke gently to Legios, "that the rational plan for the Mexicotal would have been to send their entire force up the road. Yesterday would have counted then, eh?"