Chapter 6: Savoring Victories

"Uh oh," Trilium whispered to Noia.

Noia turned and followed his gaze. Captain Landsruhl was talking with one of the Hostigi soldiers; probably their commander. Captain Landsruhl looked upset and he was staring at Noia and Trilium.

"Come along, Noius," Trilium said. "I think that Hostigi officer has heard of you."

They'd gone only a few steps when Hestophes stopped Trilium. "Look, I know we owe you; I swear I'll tell the captain myself. But this isn't the time for that."

Captain Landsruhl was gesturing at them. Noia felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. He was gesturing at her, not Trilium.

Trilium grinned at the sergeant. "Not to worry, the captain already promised us we were done with all that."

The two of them walked towards the two men, both obviously officers.

Sergeant Hestophes trailed along behind them, stopping a few steps behind Trilium.

"Corporal, private," Captain Landsruhl greeted them. "As I said yesterday, your extra guard tours are over. You did your duty and then some."

"You wanted to talk to us, sir?" Trilium said, virtually ignoring the captain's first words.

"Corporal, you and trooper Noius will go to the area where the wagons are. You are to direct the drovers to unload the wagons and tip them on their sides. I want a maze barricade, do you understand? They should use the wagons, boxes and bales to further protect the fighting positions."

"Yes, sir," Trilium responded.

The Hostigi lieutenant grinned. "That sounds ideal, Captain! Did I mention I brought four mortars with me? That will be a perfect place to set them up!"

Trilium coughed. "If, after we're set, Lieutenant, if I could take a look at your mortars... ?"

"Of course, Corporal, no problem! It's not like the God-King doesn't know all about them!" Everyone laughed at that.

There was a buzz of interest among the men as a Ruthani appeared among the Hostigi, headed for their lieutenant. Every eye in camp, including the Hostigi soldiers followed him.

Noia was astounded. The man was taller than most men, with many sets of lion fangs in necklaces around his neck, and his face was painted in a frightening mask.

"We need," Trilium said to Noia, reminding her, "to get to work."

Trilium told men what to do, and there was a lot of grumbling, in spite of the fact that less than a palm-width before they had been in peril of their lives.

Hestophes appeared and ended the argument. "Trilium is now Senior Sergeant Trilium and it's Corporal Noius. Do as you are told! Do it now!"

To say the sergeant was a credible threat understated his effect.

Two finger-widths passed and two Hostigi officers and the Ruthani joined them behind the wagon barrier as it was still under construction.

"Sergeant, this is junior Lieutenant Smyla. Please, he'll describe what we need to set up the mortars," the senior Hostigi officer told Trilium.

"Sir!" Trilium replied with alacrity.

Noia couldn't help be fascinated by the Ruthani. In the north, men like this had become the worst fear of the people who lived there. Lieutenant Gryllos bobbed his head in Noia's direction.

"This is Sergeant Leem, Corporal Noius. We tried to give the Ruthani ranks in the war, but it didn't work very well. Instead, they have someone they call their 'paramount war chief' who leads all their fighting men. Then there are the 'chiefs' mostly like our captains, who lead bands of men. Last are the 'sub-chiefs' who do the bidding of those more senior. So, while Leem is a sergeant of Hostigos, he's more like a colonel among the Ruthani. It can be confusing.

"And then there's the fact his foster sister is the paramount war chief of the Ruthani."

"His sister?" Trilium exclaimed.

"Aye. Tanda Havra, Kills from Behind, wife to the Duke of Mexico, Lord Tuck."

The Ruthani laughed. "You left out my august father, Lieutenant."

"True, but that's because even I have trouble believing the stories. Leem's father was the most famous warrior of the Ruthani, even before he died killing the God-King. He was the Lion of the Ruthani."

Noia sucked air. Everyone had heard of the four men who faced the God-King, looked him in the eye and had then struck him down.

"Sergeant," Lieutenant Gryllos said, "much as I'd like to trade war stories, right now I'd like to get set against our enemies. They only have a few miles to ride and if they're in a hurry, and I suspect they will be, we don't have much time."

In fact, they had less than a palm-width before a volley of shots hammered the eastern end of the camp. Everyone was under cover and the volley had no effect. For Noia, it was her first experience in sustained combat. She could hear bullets thudding into the wagon bed she was sheltering behind; she could hear the occasional bullet sing overhead.

Shortly, wounded began to flow in and Noia heard that fifty of the God-King's soldiers had launched an attack from the east.

A few finger-widths later twice that number attacked from the north. The battle was hot, with rifles firing continuously. The mortars fired a lot of shots as well. As fascinated as Noia was with how that worked, the bullets slamming into the wagon beds surrounding them came to haunt her. The only reason it wasn't worse was that there were now dozens of wounded and some dead, laid out in a small group away from the rest.

Noia tended the wounded without a word, doing what she could. For many, nothing helped.

There was a surprise. Captain Landsruhl appeared, and walked up to Lieutenant Smyla, who was directing the mortars. "I've heard, Lieutenant, that you wish you could be in the fight," Landsruhl told the lieutenant.

"I don't think that skulking in safety is what I could do best."

"Your mortars broke their attack from the south, before they could launch it. That attack would have been as large as the first two combined. You saved us all, Lieutenant. At these guns you are worth a hundred men!"

A moment later the captain dropped down next to Noia. "Corporal, the casualty count?"

"Sixteen dead, thirty-one sorely wounded, Captain. It's not so easy to tell if they are ours or Hostigi."

"The enemy are two to our one. It will be a Holy Miracle of Galzar if we can hold out to tomorrow. Still, we are killing, three, four and five of them to one of us. It may work."

"I would like to help on the line, sir."

Captain Landsruhl touched her hand. Not tenderly, but in a brotherly fashion. "Corporal, in my first battle as a captain my senior sergeant knocked me to the ground and demanded to know why I was in front of my company. 'The better to lead them, ' I told him. 'You can't lead us dead!' he exclaimed. I was chagrined, Corporal, for it was what I'd heard a thousand times. A heartbeat later he died, a Ruthani bullet through his head. He died two steps in front of me.

"I could have gone crazy, for the man was my friend and mentor. Instead, I retired to a relatively safe spot and gave over to hell the bastards attacking us, as was my duty. We all have our duties, Corporal. I have mine and you have yours; I can find fault with how I've done mine since we left Baytown -- I can't find any fault with how you've done yours. Stay down, stay safe."

Then he was up, checking with someone else, and again went into the maelstrom.

The firing died away after High Sun. Trilium returned and sank down next to Noia, breathing heavily. "Now they know the serious downside of pinning the other side to the waterhole -- they can't get to it."

"How goes it?"

"A third of us are dead or wounded," Trilium said bluntly. "However both the drovers and the Hostigi horse herders have learned quickly. Now I know how Lord Tuck taught the Mexicotal to be proper soldiers so fast! People were shooting at them!"

She dozed off for a bit, and then woke up when another man was brought for bandages. It was Leem, the Ruthani. The wound was nothing but a score along his left arm. She had learned plenty during the day about how to treat such wounds, so it was no trouble to clean the injury.

She placed the bandage and wound it tight, to stop the bleeding. Leem grunted. "Thank you, Noius." He worked his left arm. "I do not think this will hinder me."

"How did you know my name?" she whispered.

He grinned. "Lieutenant Gryllos is a good officer, Corporal, he tells me all that he should and nothing more. All I know is that we are to keep you safe."

She nodded, not sure how much he knew, how much his officer knew, and not wanting to ask him.

He worked his arm and grinned. "I have a favor to ask of you, Corporal."

"What?"

"I have a wife, many sisters and brothers and fourteen mothers. The women all start to weep if any of us are so much as scratched. The men paint their faces and swear blood vengeance. Please, shortly one of my brothers will join us. Say nothing to him about this," he gestured at the bandage.

Noia nearly choked. "You have fourteen mothers?"

"Aye, my father was a very -- dynamic -- man. Know too, that there are a dozen of my stepmothers who died in childbirth. I have many brothers and sisters, not counting the Duke's wife, whom my father adopted, plus dozens of cousins, nieces and nephews. One of my sisters has a daughter husband-high."

She nodded, not knowing what to say. Finally, she pointed to the bandage. "He'll see that."

Leem laughed. "In a palm-width the bandage will fall off. I've learned the High King's lessons on how to treat wounds. After another palm-width I'll wash it with wine. It'll look like a scratch. It is a scratch."

"You think help will be here soon?" Noia focused on that.

"The Hostigi are coming very fast... for your sort of soldiers. They will be here before High Sun, tomorrow. I promise you: my people will be here long before the sun rises tomorrow. And when they reach here these men of the God-King will die. Every last one of them. No matter what happens to us."

He left then, after a spate of shooting. There wasn't much shooting anymore, and the men were saying that the God-King's soldiers were sniping at anyone who showed themselves. They thought it was a joke, because they were sticking hats out on sticks. They even made a dummy, stuffed with grass from the waterhole and used a pole to shove it out into the open.

When the God-King's soldiers shot at the false targets, real marksman would shoot them dead. The firing had slowed to almost nothing.

Noia looked up at the vault of the sky. It was already mid-afternoon, the sun was moving steadily towards the horizon. It looked like they might just survive, after all! She laughed then, thinking of the Queen. These men with her still wouldn't qualify for her sisterhood. They'd crouched at this waterhole since the previous evening. No running! Lots of danger, lots of death, but no running!

When the sun was nearly at the horizon, Trilium returned. "The Ruthani says his people will be here a palm-width after sunset. Captain Landsruhl thinks the God-King's soldiers have already withdrawn, except for a few."

"They aren't firing very often," Noia observed.

"There's no way to tell if they're trying to lull us into a mistake. The only way to be sure would be to sortie, but if they're out there, lying in wait, a sortie would be a disaster. So, we stay in place, waiting for the Ruthani to come. I have an idea that any of the God-King's soldiers still here then will die before dawn."

It was a little after the sun was fully gone from the sky, and Noia was changing a bandage when the Ruthani swept through camp. There was a low murmur of voices, then silence. A few moments later Leem was back, with a huge hulk of a man in tow. "This is my brother. I have asked him to watch over you."

Trilium appeared, as if springing from nowhere. "I do that!"

The huge man shifted his stance slightly, and then Trilium flew through the air. The big man laughed. "I am Tanda Sa! That means, kills from where ever I damn well please!"

He started towards Trilium again and Noia spilled him over her leg. He was cat-quick coming up and she rolled backwards, her foot in his belly, tossing him through the air, to land on his back, knocking the wind from his body.

"Enough!" Leem roared. "Be still, brother!"

Everyone stopped. The big man picked himself up gingerly from the ground, his eyes intent on Noia.

"Tanda Sa, turn around and walk to the well. Wash up."

"Wash up?" the man-mountain demanded. "I haven't spilled blood yet, he has," he waved at Noia. "Soon, brother, someone else will need to wash off the blood."

"Calm down, brother!" Leem commanded. Noia lifted an eyebrow. While Leem looked fearsome, he didn't hold but a small candle to his brother, even if his face wasn't painted and he wasn't wearing necklaces of teeth.

Tanda Sa looked at his brother, his face clouded with anger.

Leem smiled. "Tanda Sa, remember your manners! You're not home now! If you don't behave, I'll ask Corporal Noius to protect you!"

Tanda Sa looked at Noia, and then shrugged. "Sorry, brother, I wasn't thinking. I was saving that for going east to the High King's University."

"Brother, our father told us many times how important practice was. You don't save practice for later."

Tanda Sa bobbed his head, and then turned to Noia. "You knocked me down. You threw me."

Noia nodded, deciding on the spur of the moment, that to tell him his anger distracted him would be a bad idea.

Tanda Sa turned to Trilium. "I did not mean that I could do the job better than you, sir. I just thought that now and then, one of us could sleep."

Trilium looked at Noia who could only shrug. "At least as far as Outpost," Trilium said grudgingly.

Tanda Sa grinned. "The elders of the Ruthani have decided to send someone east to see what sort of education the High King offers. They picked me. You would think they would never ask that of someone not smart enough to think of a reason to stay home.

"So, as far as Outpost, and then I'll be going on east."

Noia wondered just how many people now in camp knew who she was, where she was going and why. She didn't think it very wise that the number had risen above two. Well, she hadn't said anything and she was sure that Trilium hadn't either.

Tanda Sa smiled at Noia. "Corporal, there is one thing I would ask."

"What?" she asked, cautiously.

"What you did just now, that was on purpose, yes? Both times?"

"It was, yes," she told him.

"Could you show me how you did those things? Knock me down, and then throw me through the air? I would have wagered someone your size couldn't lift me, much less throw me!"

Noia was nonplussed. The man was huge! She'd used a simple throw the older women taught the younger women to dissuade over-amorous suitors. It didn't matter how big the man was.

"Even if I learned what I know from a woman old enough to be your mother? It's used to discourage men who have more desire than brains."

"Corporal, all I know was that I was intent on one thing, and suddenly I was on the ground. Then I turned, meaning to make you pay, and I was flying through the air again. I don't care who teaches me something like that! I'm like my adopted sister and her husband! I don't like to fight fair! I like to take any and every advantage I can!"

The discussion was interrupted when two priests of Dralm appeared from the night. Noia found it was she who explained the wounds to them. More soldiers were commanded to assist them, and the oldest priest bowed to her. "You have done well, Corporal. Please, rest now. Tomorrow, I would be pleased if you could once again help."

The priests of Dralm were still a painful and confusing subject to think about. One day the priests of Dralm had been the kindest, the most generous of all priests. If a disaster happened, Dralm or his priests provided. Then the priests of Styphon had come in great numbers to Zarthan and the priests of Dralm became the "Maximum Enemy" to be killed on sight.

Most of the serfs and slaves ignored the proscriptions of Styphon. The freedmen had been a little more cautious, but they too had kept their reverence for Dralm, no matter what the priests of Styphon commanded.

The priests of Dralm had fought back against those who would destroy them and while the damage had been to Styphon alone, the priests of Styphon claimed it hurt everyone.

Then came the word that the priests of Styphon had poisoned the king and overnight there were no priests of Styphon, any place in the realm. Noia didn't know if Styphon's priests had expected to buy loyalty, but none of it had been on offer.

Trilium led her to one of wagons lying on its side and bade her rest. Noia didn't need any prompting; she leaned back and was asleep at once.

As proud as Gryllos had been in the morning, the afternoon sapped that. The God-King's soldiers appeared within a palm-width, then quickly extend their lines until they were all around the waterhole. Firing continued, heavy at times, almost continuously.

There was no enemy to charge. The God-King's soldiers had targeted the surviving horses and any barrel that looked like it could contain water. It was a steady, grinding battle where a lot of good men died. Three times the God-King's soldiers assembled attacks and rushed the defenders; three times it was Lieutenant Smyla's mortars that made the difference.

The God-King's soldiers might have attacked three times, but there weren't enough of them to make truly strong attacks and the mortars killed dozens of them as they tried to cross the open ground around the waterhole.

At the peak of the afternoon's heat, the combat slowed to a few snipers shooting at anything or anyone that moved. The men, Hostigi and Zarthani, had taken to waving hats on sticks, even making a straw dummy and pushing it out from cover with a board to draw shots.

When the God-King's soldiers would fire the men would laugh uproariously and call out japes and epithets if they couldn't see the sniper. If they could see him a fusillade of shots made the sniper's life hazardous.

At first the whole behavior struck Gryllos as rather unseemly, but the fact remained that it slowed the sniping, as their enemies had to take extra time to decide if they were being fooled or not and extra care to make sure that they weren't exposed. That, and it was mixed groups of the Sixth Mounted and their Zarthani counterparts who were engaged in it, working together. Another miracle of Galzar's, Gryllos was sure.

Leem beckoned to Gryllos late in the afternoon and Gryllos grimaced. Leem was standing next to the Zarthani commander, so he had to go. He threw dignity to the wind and then fanned that wind as he ran as fast as he could.

He fetched up not only safe, but also not having been shot at.

Leem grinned at him. "Lieutenant, I believe they have withdrawn. There were only one or two snipers left and they weren't shooting at targets -- just an occasional shot to make us think they are still there. It is possible that even they have left."

"Which isn't to say that someone wouldn't shoot you if they saw you," Captain Landsruhl said with a laugh.

Gryllos could understand the laugh. They were going to live! Well, most of them were going to live. Maybe thirty were dead, and another fifty wounded. Some of the wounded were certain to die... but the rest of them would live! "And the corporal and the private?"

"I promoted them. Your lieutenant on the mortars allowed Sergeant Trilium to watch and help run ammunition. Corporal Noius assisted ably with the wounded."

Gryllos sighed with relief. He had considered his orders when he'd first gotten them. First with disbelief, then resignation. He dared not tell anyone about them, and even now he felt regret he'd had to reveal so much to Captain Landsruhl. Worse, it was clear the good captain hadn't had any such orders himself. Still, Gryllos had his duty and so far, he'd done it.

By nightfall they were in much better shape. Most of the men had some rest, they'd passed out jerky and extra water for dinner and everyone had liked that. Of course, being soldiers they grumbled because it was water and not wine, but a lot of wine barrels had been shot during the day.

Later, Leem found him. Gryllos nodded at the scab on his friend's arm.

"A lucky shot. Of course the man who fired it was dead a heartbeat later -- if you want to call that lucky."

Gryllos waved around them. "Are they truly gone?"

"Yes, sir. I'm pretty sure they knew that they had to leave when they did or my cousins would have gotten between them and safety. I expect to see my brother shortly after the sun goes down."

Not much later Gryllos went to see to his wounded. There wasn't much he could say or do but offer words of encouragement, sometimes extravagant. He rested for a few moments, watching Noius help a man to drink.

The new corporal looked up and met his eyes. He set the water dipper down and stalked over to Gryllos. "Why am I being sheltered?"

Gryllos shrugged. "Those are my orders, Corporal," he said levelly. There was no one close enough to overhear them, but still he kept his voice low.

"One of your soldiers, moments from death, exulted that he fought for the High King, Brigadier Markos and Lieutenant Gryllos."

Gryllos bowed his head. "My men know their duty."

"And tell me, Lieutenant-who-knows-his-duty -- what would you think if your Brigadier commanded you to cower in cover and help the wounded, because he didn't want you hurt? What would you do? Obey?"

Gryllos mentally took a step back. That sort of question went against everything he'd ever learned, against everything that he believed.

"I'm not that important! But no matter what my personal feelings are, I do as commanded."

"You would not believe, Lieutenant, how far I've had to run, to stay alive. How many times I've had to hide. The next time a battle comes, you think about your duty and what you will do when you get an unpalatable order whose sole purpose is to keep you safe, letting others die in your place."

Before Gryllos could answer there was a flurry of excitement; Ruthani scouts were coming into the camp. Gryllos put the words of the young corporal deep inside himself, burying them for another day. He'd had his duty and he'd done it as well as he knew how. He was content with that. Yet... the corporal's words obviously came from the heart.

He wasn't important and he doubted if he'd ever get an order like the one he'd given to the Zarthani private. Truth? The truth was that if someone told Gryllos to hide from battle, he'd laugh and do his duty as he saw fit. But what if it was the High King, personally, giving the order? Or Brigadier Markos? He didn't have an easy answer for those questions at all.