Chapter 29A: The Elephant Up Close

Judy felt a boot kick her foot. She grimaced as she sat up. "Tanda Havra," she said softly. She couldn't see the woman in the darkness, but knew who it had to be. It was pitch black, the middle of the night. No light was allowed to show from their position after dark; the guards had been commanded to report light the same way they would an intruder.

"My father is outside. He and I are going scouting before first light. Two of our scouts did not return at midnight, as they should. Both were here in the north. Please, wake Tazi and have her escort us through your pickets."

"I am awake, elder sister," Tazi spoke from a few feet away.

"Tazi, you need never refer to me as your elder again," Tanda told her. "We are the same, you and I."

Tazi laughed. "Sure, elder sister. Sure. Come, I will escort you past the guards. I remember once when you wouldn't have bothered."

Judy couldn't see Tanda in the dark, but she could almost see Tanda's smile. "My father and I have spent many days teaching your soldiers, Tazi! I'd like to think that teaching wasn't wasted!"

"I don't suppose you could take this outside?" Hestius said from the dark, very close to where Tazi's voice had come from. "So the rest of us can return to sleep?"

"Of course, senior sergeant!" Tazi said, "At once, senior sergeant!" There was a rustle of a blanket, and then the sound of Tazi checking her weapons. Then a fading set of footsteps.

Judy smiled slightly. She didn't know what Tuck would say about her letting Tazi and Hestius sleep together. But that was all it was, sleeping together; they were in the midst of a room with eighty others sleeping just a few feet away.

She contemplated a trip to the latrine pit and decided against it. It was easily the oddest latrine in the Hostigi army -- it hung over a thousand foot drop! But, the truth be known, even though no one had fallen through, she was terrified about stumbling around in the dark and being the first to make the mistake.

She settled down in her blankets, willing herself to sleep. She'd nearly achieved her goal when a rifle banged a few hundred yards away, directly to the front of the bunker everyone called Tarr-Dombra.

She was up in an instant, peering into the darkness. Two more rifles fired, downhill, she thought. Judy cursed the darkness as Hestius appeared at her elbow. A heartbeat later, the very junior Hostigi ensign, a boy of seventeen, joined them. "Ensign," Judy said, "turn everyone to."

She saw it clearly, as she turned back. A thousand flashes of fire. "Down!" she screamed and there were the sounds of half a dozen people hitting the rock of the bunker floor.

Not many bullets entered the bunker, but one of them ricocheted around the room.

Judy cautiously peeped over the top of the parapet, but the night was black once again. Off in the distance, she heard whistles from the main camp, calling men to arms.

Fine and wonderful, she thought. Except here we are. That was a lot of rifles that just fired a volley. A lot. And she had no idea where the heck they were. Downhill. Obviously on the ridge, coming towards them. How had that many soldiers gotten so close? She had pickets further down the ridge than where the firing had come from.

She shook her head. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered but the moment. She contemplated things. There was no moon and a high overcast. In other words, the night was pitch black. Who wanted to give the order to retreat down an irregular causeway, six feet wide in the dark?

She felt a movement beside her and Hestius spoke. "Lady Judy, the men are now spread along the parapet, kneeling. They can rise and fire on command."

His voice was odd, like he had a cold. He hadn't had a cold a moment ago when Tazi...

Judy felt an awful tremor down her spine as she looked into the darkness. Tazi, Tanda and Lion were out there! Three shots! That had been them! They had deliberately fired, Judy was sure, so that the rest of them would know that trouble was coming.

There was a pop and a flare round went off, about two hundred yards to her front, about a quarter mile off the ground. "Up!" she commanded instantly.

"All fire, one volley and down!"

Eighty rifles crashed; no one needed to be told targets, there were hundreds of them advancing towards the bunker.

And just as suddenly, there was the crash of many rifles, only this time to their rear. Judy had crouched down in expectation of a return volley, which hadn't yet materialized. "Hestius, I need to know what's going on behind us," she told the now dimly visible sergeant next to her.

"I know. I..." his voice faltered, "I'll not fail you, Lady Judy! Galzar be my witness! I've failed before, but not this time!"

He was up and moving. A volley came from the God-King's soldiers. She grinned, remembering what Tuck had told her. It was very hard to march and load. Heaven knew, they hadn't taught it to their Mexicotal! "Up, fire and down!" she commanded again. Most of them were reloaded and did as ordered.

An instant later a single rifle fired and a Hostigi sergeant bellowed in the faint light inside the bunker. "If the Lady Judy had wanted you to fire, she'd have told you! Only on command!"

One of the Mexicotal corporals, a girl, Judy thought, said something a little longer. A tremulous voice said, "Yes, sergeant!"

Judy could only grin. Another volley of fire from outside, followed by one in their rear. Now that, Judy thought, was going to be a real problem. As if to confirm that, Hestius sank down next to her.

"Lady Judy, there are about sixty of them behind us, most on the causeway, some at the base of the causeway, firing at the main camp."

"Get some men, defend the back door," Judy said. She reached out and touched his arm, "Hestius, think about who is with Tazi. Lion: a man who's killed his fair share of enemies, four-legged and two-legged. Tanda Havra. Yes, these men are coming at her from in front, but I think Lord Tuck has taught all of us, Tanda Havra included, a thing or two."

"I will hold the rear, Lady Judy. You can count on me!"

Another flare lit the night, then the mortars started landing on the soldiers advancing towards Tarr-Dombra. They flinched and Judy ordered another volley. Another wave of the God-King's troops started forward and more mortar rounds landed.

Judy grimaced. The mortar rounds were in really short supply. There couldn't be very many left. And she was tolerably sure that the men attacking her position were out of case shot range as well.

The cannon from the main position spoke and Judy almost didn't move fast enough. A cannon ball could reach the God-King's soldiers and have energy left over besides. "Hug the wall!" she screamed. The ball was nearly spent, and ended up rolling noisily across the bunker floor, doing no damage.

More guns fired from Tuck's position, aiming lower down the ridge. At least, Judy thought, there was no lack of powder and shot for those guns!

Another volley, this time ragged, came from the God-King's soldiers.

"Up! Fire! Down!" Judy commanded.

Her people started firing, and there was a quick volley from the other side. One man screamed and fell, but everyone else was down. Tricky bastards, Judy thought sourly.

Zokala reached her side. "Lady Judy, what do you wish from our people?"

"I'm going to want only three people to rise when I command 'Up'. One of yours, two of the Hostigi. They are to fire and duck back down, very quickly. A few heartbeats later I'll command 'Left' and that will be the new command to volley."

"Why not use 'left' for the first?" Zokala asked.

Another volley came from outside. "Because I said so," Judy said roughly. "Because they can hear me and are keying on that. Go!"

Judy contemplated looking out, but it was dark again, the last flare had burned out. There was a steady cannonade now from Tuck's position; Judy was pretty sure some of that was hitting behind her. There was certainly a growing number of rifle shots from back there too. Probably, she thought, Tuck and Gamelin trying to get through the blocking force.

There was a burst of flame, below Tuck's position. At first Judy wasn't sure what it was, but she realized it was simply a fire, lit on the rocks. She furrowed her brow. Was it some sort of signal?

She glanced at the sky again, and was back down a heartbeat later. Another volley and she called "Up!" and three people fired, and two hundred of the God-King's rifles fired in reply. "Left!" she called, hoping that everyone at least remembered the general direction of the enemy.

The volley wasn't crashing thunder; it was a little longer. She counted to six and poked her head up again. Oh!

The fire was providing enough light to faintly make out their attackers. That was the good news; the bad news was that for now, their enemies were hunkered down and firing from cover.

Judy grinned. "Pass the word: from now on, 'Up' means three men fire, 'left' means everyone fires. I'm going to mix them up!"

It would, she thought, work a few times, then they'd simply split the men evenly and it wouldn't work. Did the God-King's soldiers count to four? She called for Zokala, who returned at once.

"How many different volleys can the God-King's soldier's fire? Two? Three? Four?"

"They are used to firing one. Two, I think. Two is all. My father would know better."

"He is, like Lord Tuck, elsewhere," Judy told her.

There hadn't been any firing at all for a finger-width, and Judy popped up her head. There was no movement that she could see, none.

She sank back down, wondering what to do next.

There was a hiss from outside the firing slit, and Tanda Havra spoke "Three coming in!"

Judy passed the word. It was impossible to see them; the only way she knew they were actually coming in was the faint rustle of movement. It wouldn't have been audible two steps further away.

Judy gripped Tazi's arm. "Your husband to be is defending our rear, Lady Tazi," she told the young woman. Tazi grinned and moved quickly across the room.

In the meantime, Tanda was tending to Lion, who sat stolidly, as she tied a bandage around his arm. Judy knelt close and Tanda shrugged. "There were a great many. We shot their commander and his second-in-command. I think there is someone else out there, who is in charge now."

"And Lion?"

The old man sighed. "I am going to be left-handed for a while, Lady Judy. This will not be a problem as long as my wives and daughters remain faithful, willing to lend a hand."

Judy coughed.

"You old goat, it isn't that bad. If it was, we'd have to take the arm," Tanda told him.

"I thought you would, daughter. The bone is broken."

"Cracked, not shattered. You will only have to rely on memories for a moon or two."

He laughed. "Daughter! I can easily do that! I won't even have to repeat!"

Tanda Havra turned to Judy. "They will attack at dawn. There are more than a thousand."

"They are behind us, but Tuck is trying to break through."

"I heard them talking, Lady Judy. At dawn, Lord Tuck is going to have other things to worry about than less than a hundred of us, off to one side. They said, forty thousand men will come up the mountain, as soon as the sun is in his eyes."

Judy's throat choked up. She didn't know what else to do, so she started whispering the words, "From the shores of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli, we fight our country's battles on the air, on land and sea; first to fight for right and freedom, and to keep our honor clean; We are proud to claim the title of United States Marine."

Tanda looked at her curiously. "What is that, Lady Judy? A prayer to your gods?"

Judy shook her head. "My brother is a soldier, a particular kind of soldier called a Marine. They have a very proud history, Tanda. A very proud history. This is the first verse of their battle song. I'm so sorry, so very sorry, it never seemed important to learn the rest."

"What do the words mean, Lady Judy?"

So Judy explained the words. She was surprised when Tanda spoke them aloud, and Zokala passed them on to the Mexicotal with her.

"Your brother fights in the air?" Zokala asked, with hushed breath.

"Yes, where I am from, we fly. I haven't flown, but my brother has, many times. We have many ships, many flying machines. Many weapons. We are the strongest people where we are from."

There were murmurs around the bunker. Judy popped her head up. The fire was burning more brightly, brightly enough to see that the God-King's soldiers were still down, not even firing harassing shots. Long enough to see broken hay bales in the fire.

Tuck was sacrificing the horses and guns, she thought, unless he won easily. And since the God-King's soldiers were staying down, under cover, it was a waste.

A rifle fired and she felt the wind of a bullet's passage as she ducked down.

Tanda looked at Judy. "When the sun comes up, it will be in our eyes. They will come then, all of them."

Judy nodded. "Pass the word. It will be a lot easier to load without bayonets. But, when you can see the whites of their eyes, reload one last time, fix your bayonet, then fire. Then defend yourselves as best you can."

There was silence in the bunker, and then Zokala started chanting, "Never again! Never again!" In moments everyone, even the Hostigi soldiers, were chanting the Mexicotal words.

Then, Zokala surprised Judy when she stood up on the parapet, and called out to their enemies. "I am Zokala of Xipototec! Men of the God-King, today you will die here! I promise it! I promise it!"

There were a dozen rifle shots in reply, but she was out of the way. "Soon," Zokala said smugly, "the sun will be high enough for them to see my face... and their doom!"

Gamelin saw Tuck standing on the edge of the hillside, staring at the bulk of mountain that had come to be called Tarr-Dombra. For Gamelin, he was unable to stop the tears that streaked his face. "Lord Tuck, your orders for my company?" Gamelin so very much wanted to join the company attacking the soldiers cutting Lady Judy and her people off.

"The sun will over the horizon in a finger-width, Lieutenant. They will attack out of the sun. Lady Judy is facing a diversionary attack; do you understand? We could slaughter an army much larger than this one, who tried to use the causeway to attack us. Not to mention, before we finished our cannonade, there wouldn't be a causeway."

And was, Gamelin knew, the reason why artillery wasn't being used to try to clear the enemy soldiers on it. "I asked, Lord Tuck, where you wanted my company," Gamelin told Tuck, trying to sound like the fate of Lady Judy was no more of a concern to him than it was to Lord Tuck.

"On the left, above the remnants of the fire. Be prepared to move east to plug a gap in the line, or west, if needs be, to put more pressure on those holding Lady Judy's line of retreat."

"Yes, Lord Tuck, as you command."

He went to his company and gave the orders. There were angry murmurs, quickly hushed by the sergeants, from Vosper on down. They all wanted to rush to Lady Judy's rescue, but Tuck was right. The attack against Tarr-Dombra was a diversion. A strong diversion, one that had to look fearsome.

He contemplated the rocks that Tarr-Dombra had been built among. Granite. The solidest, hardest rock there was. Judy and her people were dug in, very well dug in. He'd seen to it himself, as had Vosper and Lord Tuck. Everyone had had suggestions for Lady Judy. It had been, more or less, not really a joke, but not serious either. But most of the work hadn't been that much, and since everyone had so much time on their hands there had been a lot of help, even though Lady Judy and her troops had done most of it.

"Lord Tuck," Gamelin told Vosper a few seconds later, "thinks the main attack will come as soon as the sun is up."

Vosper grinned. "They expect we will have the sun in our eyes."

"And we won't?" Gamelin asked.

"No, nor will they like why, either," Vosper replied.

Gamelin had long since learned the proper way to find out what he wanted to know. "Sergeant, could you explain?"

The old sergeant laughed. "Surely. The Lord Tuck had us build small piles of wood, up and down the hill. They are all connected with trails of fireseed. All won't burn on command, I'm sure, but enough. And that hillside is filled with sere spring and summer grass."

Gamelin looked forward. It was true, he thought. There wasn't much grass, but there was enough to burn. As if to fix the matter in his mind, he felt a puff of breeze, blowing from west to east, as it did most mornings.

There were bugles and hundreds of the God-King's soldiers rose to attack Tarr-Dombra. And, as they rose, a thin volley of rifles knocked many of them down. They ignored the pinprick and kept on coming. There was another volley just before the God-King's soldiers reached the bunker, then nothing but smoke and occasional rifle shots.

"Smoke!" Vosper said, bringing Gamelin's attention back to his front. Lady Judy was in Galzar's hands. Gamelin had his own duties this morning; he'd gain no praise failing in them, no matter what the reason!

"Prepare to open fire, mark your targets, but don't shoot until Lord Tuck does," Gamelin called, "then reload and fire at your best pace."

It was going to be a really hot pace, he was sure. He turned to a young messenger. "Make sure the ammunition runners are ready. I want them going almost at once, do you understand?"

"Yes, Lord!" the boy said, his eyes wide with pride.

There was a tremendous crash as the artillery opened fire as a solid wall. Gamelin grinned. Only a half dozen guns had fired to support Lady Judy, but it must have seemed like more, because they fired when they were ready. Those guns had long since been moved to fire at the main enemy, reloaded and were ready to go.