Chapter 5: First Combat

A half moon after Legios had encountered the two women and their "heirloom" carriage, he stood before the Duke and the Duke's wife to make his report. "Aside from the one brush, everything was quiet," Legios concluded his verbal report.

"A 'brush' that was the most serious border incident since the war," the Duke mused.

"Yes, sir. We fired a single volley from our rifles and one round, each, from the mortars and they stopped."

"Well, Captain, I'm pleased to tell you that Lady Talu has been a fountain of valuable intelligence. Her husband was a noble roughly equivalent to a duke, but also a little like a senior logistos. He ruled an agricultural regime a little north of Tenosh with about two million slaves and serfs, a dozen cities and maybe twenty towns.

"His duties consisted of taking a third of the crop for his own, then forwarding half of that on to the God-King. The quantities of grain and animals are difficult to credit, but three crops a year, most years..." The Duke spread his hands in resignation.

"Her information on politics isn't quite so detailed. Evidently she was intimately involved with running the regime, but left politics to her husband.

"We now have separate confirmation that they have a new King, and that he's ended sacrifices and essentially wiped out the priesthood, along with a good chunk of the nobility. The army seems to have been pretty much spared.

"As a result Xyl is extremely popular with the people. What's really scary is that for the first time they probably don't need ten million soldiers to guard the Heartland against revolt. What's more, there are early signs he's opened enlistment in the army."

Legios frowned. "Would that be wise? Wouldn't that be teaching the under-classes military methods and tactics? Arming them?"

"Not if you're a popular king, who has ended millennia of sacrifices on the pyramids and slaughtered those responsible. That's even more scary than having some of those ten million soldiers released for other duties... because those men represent a doubling or tripling of those numbers in a year or two."

Legios set his face. "The desert won't support that many fighting men."

"The High King spoke to my face about what a plague of locusts it would be if the God-King's people came north in any number. He wasn't envisioning them being armed soldiers. Yes, they will be even more vulnerable to having their supply lines cut. However the resources they would be able to put on guarding those supply routes would make it something like an even battle.

"I don't like to fight even battles."

No, Duke Tuck didn't. His military career was a list of battles where he'd struck hard and fast, and then, before his enemies had a chance to get set and organize, he hit them again -- if anything, harder.

"Lord Duke, I don't want to sound like a naive youth, but just what is it that they want from us? The regime you talked about -- that is wealth beyond avarice! If they end the sacrifices for more than a few moons, starting them back up would plunge the new king's realm into civil war. If he's letting serfs into the army..."

"Serfs and slaves," Tuck gently informed him.

Legios' throat worked. "They will be changing then to be more like the High King's realm."

"Aye," Tanda Havra spoke for the first time. "The results in Hostigos of ending slavery and serfdom are quite clear after a dozen years. As clear as the nose on a man's face. Even in Zarthan the change in the year since they freed the slaves and serfs is clear. So, that's what they're trying, I suspect. Tuck worries about all those men turning into soldiers. I worry about all those farmers turning into smiths, artisans and builders as well."

Tuck turned to her. "You know what the High King is planning?"

"Yes, but I don't pretend to understand why."

The Duke turned to Legios. "Once, in my home, fifty years before my time, all the great kingdoms fought against each other in one huge war, picking one side or another. One side planned a lightning strike against the other, but bad weather and heroic defenders finally turned the tide literally at the gates of the capital of one of the defenders.

"They dug defenses, starting as simple foxholes in the ground. The battle raged and raged, moon after moon, then year after year. The foxholes were connected... it was safer than trying to run between them to bring supplies. Each side lined up cannons and men in vast numbers. That war raged for four years. There were great battles fought where a million men died in a day, two and half million in a moon-quarter... to advance two or three miles.

"Finally my nation joined one of the sides and our enemies despaired and collapsed of exhaustion. The rage on the winner's side at the cost, the death and destruction that had been mainly visited on just one kingdom, wasn't to be denied. They made a peace so onerous that in little more than twenty years the war started again.

"Two generations of the youth of all those lands were consumed in those wars. Poets, singers, great men and tiny men. Heroes and cowards... they all died. And the High King knows of this and still wants to create static defensive works to stop the enemy south of Xipototec, Tecpan and Zimapan."

Legios tried to visualize a battle were a million men died in a day. Something like that had already happened, when the God-King attacked the High King's army. Did it really matter if they died on one day or two?

"We don't want their lands!" Legios said, angry. "Why can't they leave us alone!"

"Conquest, domination... just because we're here. Just because they think they can win. Who knows why men go to war? But unless the new King of the Olmecha changes course, we're set to go to war once again." The Duke sounded enormously sad.

"Let him! We defeated his predecessor! We'll defeat him!"

"I believe that as well," Tuck told him. "But the cost is going to be bitter, the bitterest draught any King or noble could drink. There is nothing sweet about contemplating spilling the blood of your subjects in rivers.

"As clever as I am, as clever as the High King is, they have more soldiers than we have people in our realms. And if we defeat those, they can raise a like number the following year... and maybe even a third year."

Legios was stunned. Was there really no hope?

The Duke must have read his mind. "Oh, the High King is clever and has many resources. I'm not bad myself. I would not want to be a soldier in an army marching in Tanda Havra's direction. She is -- protective -- of our son."

The High King was indeed clever, Legios thought. So was Duke Tuck. Lady Tanda Havra was brutal on her good days. What her bad days would be like didn't bear thinking about.

"Tell me, Captain, how did Lieutenant Smyla do?"

Legios nodded. "Sir, he's wasted as a junior lieutenant. He's very steady, very competent. He learned as much about mortars as any man can in a moon." Legios and the Duke Tuck exchanged glances. A moon quarter, really, that was all it took. That's how long Duke Tuck had trained his first mortar men, and it was longer by six days than the training Legios had.

"I'll pass on your comments to Brigadier Markos. Now, I need to sit down with my senior officers and talk about how we want to proceed now with this new situation to our south."

Legios mentally crossed his fingers. "And the two women from Tenosh -- how did their 'heirloom' carriage fare?"

"You have to take some things for granted, Captain, when people talk to you. We all lie, and the closer to us the subject is, the more important the subject is, the more we lie. The carriage, Captain, had been specially prepared for such a trip. There is no way to tell its age, but it's no heirloom. It has a steel frame; the timbering is thick oak. The team pulling their carriage are the eight finest horses in Xipototec these days. Lady Talu will make a fortune, just putting those stallions out to stud.

"I'm not sure what kind of wood the wheels are made of, but they are rock solid, with steel rims. The carriage has the same sort of steel springs as the High King's steam puller wagons have, to smooth their ride. The carriage has a false bottom and I could not, in fairness, justify searching it, although I was tempted. Lady Talu and her daughter have found a very nice place that used to belong to one of the nobles here before the war and had been taken over by the town afterwards. They are renting it to Lady Talu." He smiled at Legios. "They do not seem to lack gold Kalvans."

"It looked like it was ready to collapse."

"Dust, dirt, nicks and gouges in places that aren't significant, Captain. Which tells me, if nothing else, that the revolt wasn't as abrupt and unheralded as we heard, because that carriage wasn't prepared in a night. Or even a moon."

Legios tried to digest that, but wasn't sure what to think. Tuck clapped him on the shoulder. "Oh, yes, she certainly is a pretty young woman! Of course, now she's started dressing like the other women of Xipototec. And Captain, one important verification of their story: two days after they reached the boundary, the word of the new King and the end of sacrifices reached Huspai.

"They had a party much like the one we held in Xipototec after we liberated the town, for two days afterwards. And that city remains loyal to the new King in Tenosh.

"Going back to the subject of Lieutenant Smyla, I'll be sure to pass your comments on to Count Tellan and Brigadier Markos at Outpost. And, as a reward for the lieutenant's good work, tell him to gather his things and prepare to ride north tomorrow. We can only hope that the new king in Tenosh will need some time to put his house in order. I have a bad feeling about him, though. He was prepared, he knew what he was doing and did it quickly and ruthlessly. One thing that would do much to cement his rule about now would be a victory over one of his enemies. Us, the Zarthani or the High King.

"We could set him back for moons with a resounding defeat of his attempt. So, Smyla goes where he needs to go, as fast as possible. Other mortar-trained officers are going out to the isolated outposts along the road between Zarthan and Outpost, and from Outpost and Kingstown."

"Yes, sir. If I go now, I might even catch him before he unpacks."

The heat lasted longer into the night than it had in past days. The desert, Noia thought, was going to be an oven tomorrow. Like everyone else, she'd like to get to Outpost sooner rather than later, but she'd heard from several sources that the last few days of the journey were particularly grueling, and then there was the Barrier that, as those who'd seen it attested frequently and loudly, was a sheer vertical wall of rock the better part of a mile high.

Sergeant Hestophes had the early watch, which meant that Noia and Trilium had a double duty night. They had four palm-widths to sleep after their first tour, before they were roused for their inner picket duties.

To Noia's surprise Captain Landsruhl appeared as they prepared to walk their post. "Come with me," he said abruptly and walked towards one of the fires.

"There goes our night vision," Trilium whispered to Noia.

"Gather close," the captain told them, beckoning them very close. His voice was the softest whisper. "The Ruthani scouts appear each night, just before the sun sets. They stand on a line between the camp and the sun to show us they are there. They weren't there last night and they weren't there tonight."

He touched Trilium's hand. "I've heard you're a good soldier when you're not telling officers where to stick their ideas."

"I'm learning to hold my tongue," Trilium told him.

"Well, I hope you are good. You have the outer picket tonight. I've told the men we're going to have a roving picket, just outside the regular pickets. Be careful. I don't like things that I don't understand and I don't understand this. Do your duty tonight and tomorrow you'll be able to sleep all night again. No more extra duty."

He waved them off into the darkness.

Trilium took Noia's arm and walked with her into the darkness, stopping just past where the firelight spread. "Take a moment to let your eyes adjust. Check your pistols, your rifle."

"Do you think there is danger?" Noia asked, curious.

"It is a hard thing to say, but I agree with Captain Landsruhl. Things I don't understand make me cautious."

"But who would attack us? The Ruthani? Why? They might be the High King's allies, but he wouldn't stand with them if they attacked Zarthan. And it would be crazy if they did."

"Perhaps. The High King wouldn't do it either. Zarthan is his ally against the God-King. The God-King might want to raid us, but how? They're more than three hundred miles from here!"

Trilium looked around the dark. "We can't stay together, not after the first circuit. We'll pick a meet spot and wait for each other there. For heaven's sake, don't be late, because if you're late, I'll be rousing the camp. And if I'm late, you have to do the same."

Noia nodded soberly. This was completely different than running from her brother and his men. There she'd seen his eyes, felt his hand on her flesh. It wasn't something she'd ever forget! Here the danger was all vague and undefined. On the other hand, the waning crescent moon was still up, and between it and the stars there was enough light to place her feet.

They made one circuit of the outer pickets together, receiving challenges at each one. They agreed to meet at a rock that was about three feet across and two feet high. It was just a shade too low to be a comfortable seat.

Noia made three circuits, listening and watching carefully. It was on the fourth circuit that she noticed something unusual. It wasn't so much something she saw or heard; it was the absence of things to hear. Earlier, coyotes had been howling from the mountains; now she hadn't heard them in more than a palm-width. Usually there were crickets and other chirping insects that made occasional noises. Now, there was just a big fat nothing.

The next time she met Trilium she mentioned it. "The night has gone quiet."

He looked at her, and then listened for a moment. "I'll wait here, go to the fire and rouse the captain, quietly. Tell him what you just told me."

She walked over the fire, as if getting something to drink. Captain Landsruhl was sitting near it, his hands dangling, half asleep. She dipped down next to him and whispered quietly, "Captain, the night has turned quiet."

"Be careful, continue the patrol."

Both of them spoke in the softest of whispers. Noia walked back to where Trilium was waiting. He nodded. "Keep a hand on your pistol, but don't unsling your rifle. Let them think we don't know they're out there."

Noia glanced at the sky as she started her next circuit. There was less than a palm-width until the sun would be up. There was already the faintest light to the northeast.

She was walking steadily, but not fast, her head swiveling from side-to-side, looking all around her. She was nearly half way around when she saw the odd shape. It was about thirty feet off, and looked like a branch sticking up from a bush. She turned her head away normally, and back again, when she was closer. Quite suddenly, she realized it was a rifle barrel. Someone was hiding behind the bush, and their rifle was too long and it was sticking up!

She kept walking the last few feet to where she would meet Trilium, then past it to meet him early. "Walk faster to the rock," she whispered as they passed.

She walked a little faster, trying not to sound like she was hurrying. She joined Trilium at the rock. "There's a man, about two hundred feet from where we stand. He was to my right, hiding behind a bush, his rifle is sticking up above the bush. About thirty feet from the path."

He grimaced. "My turn to get a drink," and then he walked quickly to the fire. The captain was still where he'd been, and even watching, Noia couldn't tell if Trilium said something to the captain. All she saw was Trilium take a sip from a water jack.

A moment later he was back. "The camp is turned to. At the first sign of trouble, drop to the ground. Probably, just before it's light enough to tell white from black." He nodded in the direction he usually went. "You go that way this time."

She did, walking more carefully than ever, staring hard at every shadow. Then, out of the night Hestophes appeared, cutting across her path. He stopped and undid his pants and started pissing on a bush.

"You'll not tell the captain I had to go in the bushes?" the sergeant said with a laugh. "At my age you wake up in the middle of the night to piss and you can't wait to get to the latrine trench." He was speaking in a normal voice and Noia smiled.

"I saw someone with a rifle on the other side of the camp," she told him, her voice a whisper.

"In about a heartbeat, you'll want to get down. I'd try to avoid the piss puddle!"

Without hesitation he lifted his pistol and fired at something in the darkness. There was a choked cry, a few feet away. From across the camp, came another shot. The scream that followed was much louder.

Noia went full length into the dirt, pulling a pistol out and looking around. A few feet away Hestophes was sprawled on the ground as well, and speaking like he was training recruits.

"Firing at night is something that takes a lot of practice. If you leave your eyes open when you shoot, the flash ruins your night vision. If you close your eyes at the last second, it's easy to pull off target. The High King teaches his soldiers how to do it; we don't."

Behind them came a volley of shots, perhaps a hundred. Instantly the horses were screaming in fear and pain, and the horse lines dissolved. More shots rang out, now some from the camp.

"Back up towards the camp," the sergeant told her. "Stay down. Crawl backwards."

Crawl backwards? That would be a trick! And over the desert rocks and gravel? A painful trick!

To their front came a strange bugle call. Then a thunder of hooves and a steady drumbeat of rifle fire.

"Hold your fire!" Hestophes shouted to the camp. "Hostigi soldiers coming in!"

Then perhaps fifty men on horses rode through billows of dust, some of them firing an occasional shot. They clumped in the middle of the camp, and a heartbeat later came another shattering volley from the north side of the camp. Another bugle call, and those men were charging again.

It was too fast for Noia, she didn't understand what she'd just seen.

Captain Landsruhl's voice boomed over the camp, calling everyone to the north side, even as the number of shots from the north was tapering off.

Sergeant Hestophes stood, staring around, his face pale. If it had been just her, Noia would have stood as well. Instead, without any difficulty adding a tremor to her voice, "Is it safe to stand, sergeant?"

"Just now, not much more than hiding in the dirt."

Trilium came running up, sliding to a stop. "You're okay, Noius?"

"Yes, I'm fine," she told him.

The sergeant was looking around, shaking his head.

Trilium spoke quietly, addressing the veteran sergeant. "I've heard the stories; so have you. We thought them just that, didn't we?"

"Aye," the sergeant said. He shook himself. "I have things to do!" He rushed off, shouting for the other sergeants to report.

"Trilium," Noia asked, "what are you talking about?"

"Not even a finger-width," Trilium said, shaking his head, obviously amazed.

"Please," she said, more curious than ever.

Trilium drew himself up. "It is given to a great general to be able to turn an enemy's mistakes against him once or twice in his lifetime." He waved at the area south of the waterhole, now dotted with the bodies of soldiers of the God-King. "Twice in a finger-width? Great Galzar!"

"Twice?" Noius was now very confused.

Trilium waved at the mounted Hostigi soldiers. They'd formed into groups and were going over the battleground, collecting weapons and making sure their enemies were truly dead. They worked quickly, with a quiet and deadly efficiency. There were a minimum of orders among them.

"There isn't even fifty of them! They were outnumbered more than twice over! And then they struck and destroyed half of our enemies! Then our enemies made another mistake and they struck again and the last of our enemies died. They killed twice as many of the God-King's soldiers as they were! I don't think they took any wounded!"

Twice on the march they'd seen the snakes that rattled their tails and then killed. There were such back home, but they were rare. Here they were as common as dirt. "Like a rattlesnake," Trilium said, his hand darting out in a swift striking motion. "They attack and you die. Galzar's Mace! Were we ever fools to go to war against such as them!"