Chapter 29B

The long column reached the edge of the mesa and a call went up for Legios. He wearily made his way forward, almost as tired as that day that seemed ages ago, when he had ridden for Brigadier Markos.

Captain Halkon waved ahead of them, westwards, across the flat. "A small town." Legios looked out across the shimmering desert; there were forty or fifty buildings clustered together, hard to call it a town -- more like a city out here.

"The Captain-General wants to continue south along here." Captain Halkon waved along the top of the mesa that seemed to stretch out into the distance. "However, we are getting low on fresh food. Take your men, ride down there and buy whatever you can; rejoin us after sundown."

Legios wanted to roll his eyes. Down a six hundred foot hillside, a half dozen miles to the town. Palm-widths spent haggling over chickens and dried corn, then another six or eight mile ride and then back up the mesa. In the dark. Then however further south the First Mounted had gotten during the day.

The captain sensed Legios' hesitation and laughed. "Come, Lieutenant! You haven't had foraging duty with us before, but it's easy enough! Anyway, I hear all of you skirmish troopers have it down to a fine art! Anything that isn't tied down vanishes! Particularly if she's young and pretty!"

The half dozen men in the group laughed. Legios looked at the village again. "Yes, sir."

"I doubt very much, Lieutenant, that there are very many of the God-King's soldiers down there; this is still part of the High King's realm. If the God-King's soldiers had come this way, they'd have leveled the place." The captain was now speaking to the last, but easily the most significant, of Legios' concerns. Since he'd seen several towns that the God-King's soldiers had gone through, he knew full well the horror the captain spoke of -- and that horror hadn't happened here.

Legios went and gave his troops the good news. Like him, they were not unduly pleased with the honor that had been afforded them.

Then Short Mortar spoke up. "If the town's not seen the God-King's soldiers, like as not there's beer lads! Maybe some wine, for those of us with finer tastes." He hitched himself up, like a caricature of a nobleman. Everyone laughed, but the complaints diminished.

"Women!" Big Mortar said, his eyes lighting up. Even Legios laughed. They rode down the hill, a hundred and fifty of them. The wagons stayed up on the mesa, but his logistos sergeant had brought along two dozen horses, the better to carry the spoils of their gleanings.

The town was quiet, Legios thought, as they rode closer. He stopped a few hundred yards away. It was too quiet. He heard Big Mortar say something and the answering mutter as the word passed down the line. Weapons up. Legios grimaced. Damn few mortar men carried rifles, most preferred a brace of pistols that could be tucked in their belts and that didn't require twenty pounds of paraphernalia to load and shoot.

They rode into the quiet town then, eyes turning every which way. They came to the largest building in the place, a three story building of heavy adobe construction, built like a fortress, with a four foot wall around it. It was to one side of the main plaza, with a fountain centered in the plaza. Nothing moved, no one was visible.

A man came out of the building, shading his eyes as they rode closer.

"Afternoon," the man said, looking them over. "Dralm be praised! You are the High King's men!"

"Yes, the First Mounted Rifles," Legios informed him.

The man recoiled slightly, looking around, nervously.

Legios continued, "Captain-General Harmakros sent us to scout and to see if we might purchase some fresh food. Anything, be it livestock or fresh vegetables. We'll pay for it with the High King's gold."

The man grinned. "Then you are doubly welcome, Captain! Come inside and take your ease!"

"It's lieutenant, sir." Legios motioned to the Short Mortar. "Get the men inside the wall."

The townsman shook his head. "No need, Captain, er, Lieutenant. It'll be a mite crowded."

"I'll feel better," Legios said. "I'm still new at this lieutenant stuff; I don't want to make a mistake."

The other laughed. "Well, you'll have to explain it to your men, crowding them cheek and jowl. Come inside, I'll send a man to fetch the local merchants."

"Where is everyone?"

The other grimaced. "There are rumors of God-King's soldiers all over everywhere. Most of the kids and women folk are back in the hills, safe. A few of us are left here. We plan on scooting too, if we see the God-King's soldiers coming."

Legios thought that odd; they didn't seem to have seen the Heavy Weapons Company coming. He waved the two Mortar brothers to come with him and the three of them strode into the inn.

"A beer, Lieutenant? For you and your sergeants?" the man who seemed to be the proprietor said.

If I was a good officer, Legios thought, I'd never agree to any such thing while my men stand in the sun, baking. And why was the man behind the bar standing nervously, hands trembling, refusing to look at him?

"Certainly, sir. How much beer do you have?"

"Maybe three barrels, sir. Perhaps a bit more."

"I'll buy one of them for my men," Legios told him pompously, his eyes still on the man behind the counter.

Someone else emerged from the shadows of the room. He was blonde and tall, like most of Legios' men. Clear-eyed but a little nervous.

"I'll see to that, Vicik," the newcomer said. "These gentleman wish to buy supplies?"

"Yes. They are Captain-General Harmakros' men. From the First Mounted Rifles, come to buy supplies."

"Well then," the new man said with good cheer, "you've come to the right place! I'll send someone off to the general store in a moment. You understand, practically everything has been hidden away? It might take a bit to get it out?"

He turned and vanished out the back, but not before Short Mortar had said quietly, "Considering the number of God-King's soldiers just west of here, only prudence."

"Yes, there is that," the man called Vicik said. "We are certainly glad to see the High King's men here! And Harmakros! Now there's a fighting man!"

"Yes," Legios replied, waving back towards the mesa. "His main force should be just east of here now. We'll rejoin towards the rear and make the logistos' day."

The man behind the bar was pale, nearly white as a sheet; his hands never stopped trembling. Something was wrong, Legios thought. Something was very wrong.

Vicik smiled. "Let me go see if I can at least find us a mug of beer, while we wait!"

He vanished too and Legios looked at Short, who looked back at him intently. "Assume," he remembered the words the High King had spoken the day he'd come to lecture Legios' class on tactics, "assume that the enemy that you face isn't stupid. That they too wish to prevail. Assume that the enemy is sneaky, tricky and has considerable means.

"Never make a camp where you don't consider what happens if you are attacked in it. Plan.

"When you are moving and there is an area ahead that hasn't been adequately scouted or you are simply moving too fast for scouts, contemplate what you would do as a defender to harry your attackers. Then plan how you could frustrate that heroic defense.

"Do not ride out trembling in fear, assuming the enemy lurks under each leaf in the forest. However, turning over the occasional leaf to see what sort of slime is underneath -- that can save you, your soldiers and the Kingdom."

That lecture had left an indelible impression on Legios. His eyes were on the man behind the bar, who saw his interest and promptly dropped a glass, glancing as he did towards the back, where the other two had vanished. Legios made up his mind and turned to Short. "Unload. Have two thirds of those with rifles take up position upstairs. Everyone else downstairs. Post triple lookouts. Get the weapons ready to set up on the roof, as many as we can get up there. I want everyone inside or on the roof. Hasty defense."

"Sir!" Short went outside, calling to the other sergeants.

"Big, I'd like to talk to that man," Legios said quietly, indicating the barkeeper. Big, who wasn't nearly as dumb as he pretended, not by a thousand times, moved quickly, jerking the hapless man over the bar and setting him down in front of Legios. Men started coming in the room from outside, questions being asked, sergeants moving to do what had to be done.

Legios smiled at the man, now nearly comatose. "What's going on?"

The man shook his head, saying not a word, unable to meet Legios' eyes.

Big reached out and touched the man's shoulder. "The lieutenant asked you a question. Answer him." The man shook his head again, vehemently. Big squeezed just a little bit and the man sank to his knees.

Legios was about to say something, but Big glanced his way and shook his head. Big turned back to the man on his knees. "Where is your family?" Big's voice was anything but big, when he wanted it to be.

The man once more shook his head violently.

Big smiled, but it wasn't something you'd like to see, especially in the circumstances. "When my brother and I were boys our parents were killed and our little brothers and sisters taken by the God-King's soldiers. The God-King's soldiers told my older brother that our parents would die if he didn't do what they told him. They wanted us to betray others." Big smiled broader. "Short killed two of them, wounded another and led me away to escape as well. Our parents had been long dead. Long dead." Big touched the barkeep's shoulder, far more gently than you would think such a big man could do such a thing.

"If they took your family, they are dead already. Do you want their deaths to serve for nothing? Is it truly your desire to help those fiends from hell?"

"They took the women, the children, yesterday. We didn't even know they were close."

The man was close to breaking, Legios thought.

"How many?" Legios asked quietly, not wanting to break the spell.

"I couldn't see; they wouldn't let me out. They took them: Jana, the baby and Alala! They can't be dead! They can't! They promised!"

Short was back. "I searched the place. There is a cellar, with a window in the back. Someone's used it to leave in the last few heartbeats. They were in a bit of a hurry."

One of the junior sergeants appeared. "Sir, Corporal Kilai's respects. Heliograph signal from Captain Halkon. Two, three thousand of the God-King's soldiers are approaching from the west."

"And that's all?" asked Short.

The corporal shrugged. "The captain sent that the army was riding to our support." Obviously not believing it.

Short laughed. "If Captain Halkon says they are riding to our support, they are riding to our support."

Big rumbled, "And if anyone doubts that, have him come see me."

Shortly, Legios and the two Mortar brothers stood atop the inn, looking out over the town. The roof was a good fighting position, thick walls, narrow slots for rifles, and plenty of room for the mortars. Obviously this had been planned as a strong point in case the town was ever attacked.

"I still can't see any dust," one of the corporals said, looking around them.

"God-King's soldiers on foot don't throw up much," Legios said quietly.

The other gulped, looking west again.

Legios looked around their position in the inn. The roof was perhaps a hundred feet on a side and appeared quite solid.

"They are going to come from the west," Legios said with more certainty than he felt. "Perhaps there are already a few snipers in town. I want the guns set to fire on the main plaza in front of the inn."

Big looked at the town, at the low wall around the inn and nodded. "The outer wall isn't any good. Anyone you put on it is a dead man. We can't protect the horses."

"Make sure everything is off the horses and inside, then kick the horses loose," Legios commanded.

"You mean, out the gate?" Big asked.

"You want to share this place with two hundred dead horses?" Legios said. The sergeant shook his head. "Send them out. Maybe we can get some of them back later; we won't get any back if we keep them here. Not to mention the distraction."

Big saluted and was running downstairs shouting orders. Legios waved around the roof talking now to Short. Only a dozen mortars were set up. "I want all of the tubes up here. Keep the shells downstairs just yet, detail two dozen men to hump them up, once the fighting starts. We don't want any accidents here."

"All of the tubes, Lieutenant?"